We are human
by Akabane13
Summary: An OC story of a man who spends his days trying to escape hell only to find in doing so he may have paved the way for the devil himself. Romance eventually and is it M oh yes.
1. That's life I suppose

Well, I'm writing my first fic, and an OC one at that, so I suppose I should ask you all to be kind but I'd rather you be honest, besides I have a sever distrust of OCs so I'll probably judge him much harsher than any of you. I actually came up with this character while reading AbstractError's work so there will be some discrepancies from Kubo's original story, you don't have to read her or his (not sure the gender of the writer) work but it can't hurt. Okay enough of the dull crap on with the show.

**That's life I suppose**

_July 15, 1327 London_

The crowd seemed to sway back and forth as the sun beat mercilessly down upon them as though that tiny movement would alleviate their discomfort yet none would think of missing the execution of such a notorious criminal. Eventually a mule drawn wagon began to make its way through the crowd. There were four guards surrounding the wagon each periodically glancing to the man standing in the wagon above them, the man about to die.

He was a tall man, though all Danes were taller than the average Londoner, with hair that at one time may have been blonde but due to his lengthy incarceration had left it brown and filthy, sticking to his scalp and hanging limply between his shoulder blades. Though many would think him to be in his early forties with his scraggily beard and gaunt features he was actually only in his late twenties or early thirties. He wore what very well could have been a few potato sacks tied together with nothing to cover his blistered feet. His dark green eyes swept the crowd back and forth as though looking for something yet never finding it for every face he saw either turned away in fear or looked upon him with nothing but hate.

"Odd," he mused "I don't even know who any of these people are".

Soon enough they reached the steps to the gallows. The guard at the back took the rope that bound the man's hands and guided him to the noose all the while the man continued to gaze at the crowd; this did not go unnoticed by the guard.

"What are ya looking for," the guard laughed "you've stolen more than any o these people ave made in their lives, ya think any one o them'll shed a tear fer the likes o you."

The man turned to the guard and plastered a smile on his filthy face, "Nah, jes lookin ta see if any o da ones Ah actually stole from made it ta dis man's last stand, so fer jes a crowd o nobodies guess sa long as dey got der stuff back dey don care what appens to da one what took it".

The guard let out a laugh to that and quickly stepped back down in order to get a good view of the execution. As he left a vicar ascended the steps followed closely by a heavyset man with a grey beard wearing a black hood. The executioner walked up to the prisoner and deftly fit the noose around his neck as the vicar began to speak.

"Christ do Ah rally hav ta listen ta dis at mah own execution," the prisoner muttered turning to the heavyset executioner standing with his hand on the lever that would see him to the grave "Ah'm about ta die ain't dat punishment a nough."

"… impersonation of a member of the clergy, impersonation of a member of the military, arson…," continued the vicar.

"Arson?" said the prisoner all the while keeping his eyes on the heavyset man with the hood and smiling as though he didn't have a care in the world, "Ah lite one pair o drapes wit a candle an suddenly dey act as tough Ah burn daun St. Paul's." The executioner continued to ignore him, "Ah suppose burnin a baron's drapes jes ta caws a bit o chaos be a high crime in dese pats."

"Be silent," whispered the executioner as though to speak during the vicars readings of the accused crimes were akin to burning the cross, "have some decency for once in your wretched life."

The prisoner finally turned his face to look the heavyset man dead in the eyes, "No," he was no longer smiling, "if Ah was ta stop talkin den dis would jes be another day des people would ferget but dat ain't wot dis be about," his eyes were no longer shining with mirth, " ya caught meh fine, ya gonna kill meh truth is Ah deserve it, but ya put meh on display in front o da palace where dat great t'ief of a man we call King dat Ah do not laik." The older man stared at this gaunt sickly man dressed in rags that suddenly seemed less sickly and worse less like a prisoner. "Dis whole ting is jes ta make de people member who be de top dog, hell Ah bet oh he be done."

The vicar made his way over to the prisoner, "Have you any last words?"

"In all honesty Ah do," the man to a breath to collect his thoughts then he stamped his foot on the boards he was standing on, "Ah hope mah neck breaks when dis door be opened." At the questioning look the holy man gave him he elaborated. "When Ah was a kid Ah fell inta da Themes, nearly drowned, is de only experience Ah pray ta God Ah neva gotta go trough again."

The executioner scoffed and gripped the lever more firmly but the vicar continued to look into the prisoner's eyes, for the first time that day he saw uncertainty, "You're afraid."

"Nah, Ah was afraid last naght now Ah'm jes ready ta git dis over wit," but the trembling of his bound hands gave him away.

"Do you believe in God?" asked the holy man "well of course you do, else you would not pray to him." The prisoner remained silent. "Perhaps if you were to repent your sins to me he would let you into heaven."

The other man's hands suddenly stopped trembling, "Ah've seen a lot in mah life an dere be one ting Ah know without a doubt," he leaned closer to the vicar so the executioner wouldn't hear, "dere is a God but he don't care a wit bout any o us least of all me."

The vicar looked at him as though he were a child that had disappointed his teacher before the final test and he may very well have. With a nod of his head a burlap bag was placed over the prisoners head. The lever was polled and the last coherent thought the prisoner had in this life was, "Well, shit" then he was overcome with indescribable terror and panic as his leg began to kick furiously looking for ground that was not there.

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_September 19 1601 Hueco Mundo_

It was like any other place you might find on this plane of existence, white sand as far as the eye can see periodically broken up by what at first glance appear to be dead trees but which were an impossibility for in order for there to be dead trees there must first be living trees and this place only housed the dead; perhaps a cruel joke to force those to remember what they had lost. The only thing that set this little patch of hell apart from any other were the dozens of hollows milling about, for as long as they could remember this area had been free of any of the tyrants, any of those horrible creatures known as Vaste Lorde.

Suddenly, as one of the larger hollow was lumbering from one cluster of the dead to another a tear in reality came into being situated in the middle of where the collective of groups the hollows had gathered. At first it was no bigger than the height of a coin but it grew at an alarming rate until three full grown men could walk side by side without any discomfort. This did not go unnoticed by the different groups of hollows most of which retreated to what they perceived to be a safe distance though a few including the larger one held their ground and waited for whatever had created this doorway to come through. They didn't have to wait long.

When the Garganta had finished forming its creator shambled out, at first he looked like a man but when the shadows fell away from him it was made clear he was anything but. From the waist up he was a Caucasian man with longer brown hair, the fringes kept out of his eyes by a band of what appears to be white bone, sticking up as though he has just stood in a wind tunnel for about an hour, his dark green eyes were flashing with barely controlled rage, while his lean yet corded torso and arms constantly tensed and relaxed, the only part forever still is a small hole just above his navel. From the waist down his body seemed to become a shapeless blob for about two feet at which point it split apart into eight separate tentacles complete with hundreds perhaps thousands of suction cups on the bottoms.

Seven of the tentacles were flailing about as though looking for some small or not so small animal to latch onto and crush; the eighth, unfortunately, was three feet shorter than the others and burnt black at the end. The man, upon closer inspection, had several burns along his right arm and abdomen as well as seemed to be missing a few clumps of hair.

"GODFUCKINGDAMN IT!" He screamed as he finally got himself under control, or at least enough to talk. "I spend five shitty years doing nothing but dampening my reitsu in this place and what do I get," those hollows that had the audacity to stand close to him die on the spot, "A month, A BLEEDING month in the real world."

As he continued to rant more and more hollows died simply from the force of his reitsu.

"Am I eating any human souls, no, am I eating any Quincy, no, am I eating any thrice damned shinigame, NO so how is it that that old decrepit fart is still able to find me. I used to be able to stay there for years and now I get a month, yeah that's fair, all of eternity in this pit and a month under the sun." by this time those on the outskirts of the group started to fall, "I'm going to kill him, I don't care how long it takes but I'm going to cut off Yamamoto's big fat beard tear out his heart wrap it in that disgusting bundle of hair and jam it down his throat!"

By now every single hollow in the immediate area lay dead, there was no blood no sign of a struggle of any kind, their hearts and minds simply could not withstand his unbridled presence. Finally calming himself the man looked around to see the circle of death he stood in the middle of.

"Well first things first," he mused as he pick up the closest body, "bon apatite." As he sunk his teeth into the creatures flank the burns along his shoulder began to turn from dark red to a light pink.

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A/N Whew, too much description not enough action thank all the gods that ever were and ever will be that I only came up with one OC. Yes he has a name I just didn't want to say This is the story of blah blah I suppose I could've had the vicar say it but I didn't want to so whatever. If you take the tip of your index finger and touch it to the tip of your thumb that's the size of his hole. That's enough outta me.

Oh if you can't understand what he's saying before his execution try saying it aloud, that's how I did his dialogue.


	2. Who am I

**Who am I**

_March 1, 1746 20 miles east of Bordeaux_

Fifty men and women in white were on their way to meet with fifty men and women in black to discuss their terms of surrender.

"How can we do this Elder are we simply going to become the Shinigame's lap dogs," argued a young man to a hunched over figure supporting himself with a gnarled cane, "you know as well as I that they are not invincible, you know what we do is justice." They had been arguing for the past two hours and finally the old man had had enough.

"What do you suggest I do Stark?" the elder exploded "Do you think I like this, has it crossed that thing you call a brain that maybe we don't have a choice in the matter?"

"No Elder I just thought …"

"Leave the thought to those who can think about the big picture for a change. You think just because you happen to be one of the most talented Quincy of your generation that that gives you the right to tell us all how to do business?"

Stark looked away, then over the faces of his brethren, "I just can't watch as we give up everything, this isn't a hobby or even our lively hood were talking about here this is who we are as a people. I just don't want us to lose who we are."

The Elder put his hand on Stark's shoulder as though he was going to comfort the younger man with sweet yet false word; in the end he let his hand drop.

"I know boy, truly I do."

They all could see the old barn that would be used to conduct this meeting.

"This is a cease fire," muttered the old man, "nothing more." Stark turned so quickly he almost lost his footing. The old man grinned while keeping an eye on the younger, "At the moment we lack the numbers nephew but when we don't for the pride of the Quincy we wills show them just what we can do."

Stark couldn't help but burst out laughing at that, "'Show them just what we can do' is that really the best you can come up with uncle we've been walking for miles and that's your best."

At that the Elder cracked a smile of his own, "Shut that mouth of yours, you know I can't say what I really want on account of the ladies present."

As they reach the building the Elder pulled Stark to the side, a few of the other watched them but he told them they would be along in a moment.

"Stark I don't know how long this will take."

"Probably a few minutes at the most, I doubt old Yamamoto would enjoy being in the same room with us for any amount of time."

"No not that but how long it will take for us to repopulate."

"I'll do my part," laughed Stark.

"This is serious," said the Elder immediately Stark closed his mouth, "I don't think I'll live to see the day we're back at full strength and I just wanted you to know even though you're rash, emotional, and tend to get caught up in the details I'm proud of you and I believe that you would make a good leader. When I die I want you to succeed me."

For a moment all Stark could do was stare mouth slightly open, eventually he recovered enough to show his gratitude, "Uncle I don't know what to say I."

"Then don't we have places to be and I don't have forever." He shuffled off into the old barn with his nephew hot on his heels.

"And so it follows that the Quincy will use their abilities only to detain the hollows in preparation for the arrival of the shinigame," Yamamoto's voice is like listening to a bunch of rocks grinding together, it had gotten so bad that at times Stark would outwardly wince, "if any Quincy destroys a hollow that individual will be justly disciplined and if such behavior continues then this treaty is void."

Each leader of their respective faction signed two copies of the treaty and that was the end of it, no great fanfare no crying family members rushing to meet the family that had been off fighting the good fight. Just one hundred people standing in the middle of a dilapidated barn signing pieces of paper each planning to betray the other; for the safety of the world.

_June 23, 1746 Bordeaux_

"I'll just be gone for a month at the most," Start said to the younger girl as he finished packing before realizing she had once again taken one of his books; snatching it back and returning it to its rightful place he continued, "one month do you think you can stay out of trouble for that long Lilinette?"

Lilinette finally looked up from the different knickknacks she had somehow acquired, "I'll bet my mistress'll be glad you're leavin though I ain't never seen her so much as crack a smile at anything before in my life."

She stood and faced Stark and planted her feet as though getting ready to face an incoming tsunami, "And when you get back you'll marry me got that," she said it as though that was as indisputable as say the sun always sets in the west even though she knew what he would say in the end.

"Lillinette you're 14 you know it wouldn't be proper." At her crestfallen look Stark softened his voice, "Look I promised I wouldn't let them marry you off, when I get back I'll declare my intentions to take you as my wife but not until your old enough." With her continued silence he played his last card, "When I return I'll take you away from this place, you can stay with me and my family we've got a big house and all the books you'll ever need, why you'll …"

"You mean that," she whispered so quietly that it could have been mistaken for the wind outside the window.

"Of course I do, I would never lie to you."

She grinned at that and waved him off as she went back to fiddling with something on the hem of her sleeve, "Well then get outta here already, the sooner you get to Paris and talk with whoever it is the sooner you'll get back."

Stark smiled faintly at how nonchalant she was being about his departure on the other hand, he supposed, he had only stayed at his friend's house two months out of the year for as long as he had been fighting the shinigame. With the war at least temporarily over he could settle down and maybe, dare he even dream it, start a family. With that joyous thought in mind he grabbed his things, said farewell to Lilinette and again promising it would only be a month, and left for Paris.

Seven days later Lilinette complained to her mistress of an upset stomach but her mistress berated her and had her continue working. Three days after that Lilinette collapsed from a high fever while leaving her home. Ten days after Stark had promised to take her home with him as soon as he returned from Paris Lilinette died.

It was two weeks, not a month, in which Stark was away from Bordeaux but when he returned it was not to find the inquisitive yet troublesome young woman he had left but a fresh mound of dirt and stone to mark her final resting place. He called a friend from the city who rushed immediately to Stark's aid and, under the cover of darkness, the dug up the body to try and determine how things could have gone so wrong so quickly. After a time it was discovered Lilinette was killed by peritonitis, a ruptured appendix.

Stark left Bordeaux that very night with the intention to never return.

_August 6, 1756 Bordeaux_

To the untrained eye it appeared to be a ghost town, at least everywhere except where a horde of men in white seemed to be running about; but to those who had the power they would see the thousands of creatures with white masks and horribly disfigured bodies all pouring out of one old abandoned manor. Around the back of the building where there were no Quincy at the moment a Garganta opened and out walked the creature with brown hair, green eyes, and eight tentacles for legs.

He looked around as though he had woken up in a strange room with no idea how he got there or even where there was.

"Hello, any of you low level chumps know where I am?" None of the surrounding hollows so much as glance in his direction so he decides to look around and get his bearings. As he was turning the corner of the house he nearly barreled into a lone Quincy fighting off three hollows at once. Fortunately he had repressed his reitsu to the point where he was no different than the average human soul. Rather than stick around to find out how the Quincy's fight would turn out he changed the pigment of his skin to match that of the boards on the house and slipped through an open window.

Once inside he immediately noticed the lack of hollows, in fact there was no sign of life at all. He moved through the rooms trying to puzzle out what was so important about this place. After a time he reached the cellar and what he saw astounded him. There was a Garganta in the middle of the room pulsing with energy and alternating between widening and narrowing as though sucking in air and then blowing it out. But it was not the Garganta that gave the man pause but what sat in front of it. It had no concrete form but was as white as a sheet and shined like the sun, he could see no features but was sure it was watching him and waiting to see which one would strike first.

The man plastered a cocky grin on his face crossed his arms over his chest and asked, "So I don't suppose you could tell me where I am?"

"I don't know," it whispered. When it spoke its voice was that of a young woman, though full of sadness.

"Who are you?" he asked hoping to gain some insight into who this creature before him was.

"I don't know."

"Why are you here?" asked the man drawing a few feet closer and peering at what he hoped was her face, "Are you looking for something?"

"I'm waiting."

"Waiting for what," when he got no reply he guessed again, "or perhaps who."

"Waiting for an angel," at last he could see eyes peering at him from out of the light, "Are you an angel?"

At that the man laughed, he laughed so hard he almost doubled over, "No no I never have been nor ever will be anyone's angel."

The specter's eyes drifted down to the floor, "I've been waiting for so long, so long."

The man was about to say something when he heard a crash come in from the ceiling, "Well," he turned to the specter, "perhaps that's your angel now."

The man then walked over to some stairs that would take him to a trap door leading outside but be for he opened it he turned back to the young woman's ghost, "If that angel's wearing white and blue or carrying a sword you make sure you don't go with them." And with that last piece of advice he was gone.

As he was moving away from the battlefield a high pitched whistling made itself known to him. The man stopped and cocked his head to the side trying to identify the sound; in a few moments his eyes went wide and he began to move as quickly as he could away from the manor, unfortunately his body was not made for quick movements on land so he was not far enough away when the first shinigami made their way into the real world. They descended on the Quincy like a pack of wolves, tearing through them without remorse. The man was almost at a place where he would be comfortable opening a Garganta when four shinigame blocked his path.

"Who the hell are you?" asked the centermost one as he drew his sword the other three following suit, "You some kind of Quincy experiment?"

The man sized up each shinigame, noticing none had released their zanpactou's yet, "just more unlucky nobodies," he thought.

"My name's Loth Elcho and I'm just your run of the mill Vaste Lorde that got stuck in the middle of your war against the shinigame. Now normally I'd just cripple you guys to keep the old man off my trail but something tells me that's not going to cut it so if you would be so kind as to fall on your sword I'd really appreciate it."

The leader of the group scoffed at that, "Well Loth-_chan_ I don't know what a Vaste Lorde is but you'll make a great trophy. My name…"

"Whoa," Loth held up his hands and two tentacles, "shut up for a second cause I have three things to say before you go any further. Number one," he held up one finger as the men looked on as though this were the strangest thing they had ever seen, "I applaud your bravery in rushing blindly into a fight with an opponent you know nothing about but really, you're going to call me a girl, try and have some class, this isn't a schoolyard fight. Two," a hollow was lecturing four shinigame, it was so absurd you just had to stop and stare, "do I look Japanese? Do I even look Asian? No, then get it right, my first name is Loth then you say Elcho; if I actually cared to learn any of your names I would have the decency to us the right one when I'm addressing one of you." Loth hung his head in false exasperation but was really only hiding the grin that threatened to split his face.

"And three _Cero._"

From the tips of his raised tentacles two beams of energy sped towards the furthest two shinigami obliterating the first from the waste up the second shinigame had better reflexes than the first though this was not a boon. He lost the right half of his torso from his collar bone down to his pelvis as well as his right arm. If you could stand the sight of it on could actually see his spine and watch his heart frantically beat. The man gasped for air and tried to continue stand before his muscles gave out and he collapsed in what remained of his liver.

"You son of a bitch!" the other two charged Loth from the left and right. The one on the right swung his sword at Loth's neck while the other held his blade over his head and shouted, "Smash Martello Gigantesco!"

Loth grabbed the first man by the ankles with a tentacle before he could get within striking distance and simply held at a distance. However, now the leader was holding what appeared to be a giant sledge hammer which he brought down on the base of the tentacle holding his colleague. This, surprisingly enough, freed the weaker man, then the hammer was brought down once again right on top of Loth's head creating a rather large crater as well as kicking up a lot of dust.

"Go, report this to the higher ups we may need a few more men on this one," said the leader to his recently released squad mate.

The other man quickly picked himself up, turned to go for help, and promptly fell to his knees.

The other man ran over and asked what was wrong. Instead of responding the first man rolled back his eyes, began to foam at the mouth, fell over and died. Now alone the leader began to look for signs of backup the hollow may have had.

"Whew that was load, heck my ears are still wringing," Loth walked out of the dust towards the remaining shinigame, "that was a pretty good hit you got in."

"How," the shinigame clutched his hammer to his chest, "I should have at least broken something in your body so how are you still standing there?"

Slowly, as Loth got closer to his hopeless prey, one of his tentacles snaked its way towards the man's leg, "Well I'll let you in on a little secret," it made its way over the man's knees making sure not to put any noticeable pressure that would alert its prey, "octopus', aside from their beak, don't have any bones," Loth was standing a mere foot away from his prey, allowing his tentacle to finish its work. It began to wrap around the man's waist and arms not tight enough to cause any pain but discomfort definitely existed, "Therefore I have no bones."

The man began to struggle against what bound him, "Octopus' are also able to inject neurotoxins into other animals, this normally takes a few hours but I guess with me it's only a few seconds."

At that the captive stopped struggling and asked in a voice about an octave higher than normal, "You mean I'm going to end up like him?"

"You know what takes the place of the my bones," without waiting for a reply Loth squeezed the man until he felt like his eyes were going to pop out of his skull, "pure muscle."

"I don't have any bones to break," he then twisted his tentacle in a way that turned the man's chest to be on the same side as his posterior while his head continued to face "forward", "you do."

Letting the corpse fall to the ground Loth Elcho opened a Garganta that would take him back to what he had come to call home. Before leaving, however, he turned back to see the last of the quincy being take out by the shinigame. He swept his gaze over to the manor and felt a way of sadness was through him as he thought about the young woman waiting for her angel.

A/N Yeah, Loth isn't the nicest guy in the world but hey it's early in the story and he's not meant to be. The guy's release is in Italian because I couldn't find the sight I use to translate words into Japanese without it coming out in kanji. I've got the beginning and end of this thing planned out but the middle is difficult to pin down.


	3. Lonely together

You've probably noticed (or perhaps not) that I haven't written any disclaimers; well I have a blanket statement for all of us. This site is called meaning it is written by the fans of the stories. Honestly, I feel it's kind of unnecessary to have to write that we don't own all (in my case most) of the characters in this story. If for whatever reason somebody says I have to write the disclaimers I'll try to adhere to the rules.

Lonely together

_March 15, 1807 Hueco Mundo_

Stark walked through the sands of his realm, lazily sweeping his gaze from side to side looking for either prey or another Vaste Lorde that had gotten the idea that even though he hadn't been seen in years his territory was up for grabs. A wraith which looked faintly like a young girl but seemed to be constantly out of focus trailed behind him, always walking on the shadow he cast. His territory was just large enough to dissuade others from thinking he was weak and an easy target yet small enough so that no matter where they were in relation to each other as long as they stayed in their realm he and Lilinette would always be able to feel each other's reitsu. At least that was Stark's idea when he first staked out this land though Lillinette had yet to leave his side in all the years they'd been here.

At last after hours of walking Stark spotted what looked to be a lone hollow off in the distance; it appeared to be an ostrich but with a shorter and thicker neck. Stark called Lilinette to his side and then began to tamper with his reitsu, throwing as much of it behind him as he could and then taking what he had left and letting it seep out towards their target. The hollow, sensing what it perceived to be a high level yet wounded gillian, began to lumber towards the duo. Suddenly, as it was passing one of the quartz trees, its leg sank into the sand. Startled but not alarmed the hollow attempted to plant its other foot firmly in the sand to give it some leverage; however, as soon as it put more pressure on that leg it too sank. Before the hollow could voice its terror it was sucked beneath the sand.

Stark was so startled that it took him a second to process what had just happened while Lilinette merely shimmered at his side never taking her eyes off the taller man. Finally deciding on a course of action he began to focus his reitsu on the area of sand the hollow had fallen onto. At first nothing happened so Stark continued to steadily increase the pressure. It was a good thirty seconds before anything happened, though when it did it took both Stark and his companion completely by surprise.

"All right already I'm coming up," yelled a voice muffled by sand. The sand began to shift and then the ostrich hollow flew out and landed a ways away, though now its neck was missing a chunk almost it had been ripped out by some very strong teeth. Right after it landed an arm shot out and laid itself flat on the ground, digging its fingers into the sand as though to maximize its purchase. Quickly a figure pulled itself out into the open, stared at the duo for a moment or two and promptly began to pick sand out of its ears and hair, "You the two making all that noise," asked Loth once he could again hear properly.

Getting over his surprise Stark advanced on the man, "What are you doing here? This is our territory," by now he was within striking distance, "or did you think that if you hid underground you could wait for an opportunity to devour us," Loth took a few steps back in the face of Stark's fury, "because I'll give you just this one piece of friendly advice, if you so much as look at us the wrong way I will kill you."

With that Stark took a step back fully expecting to either have the intruder flee for his life or attack in some form of misguided bravado. Lilinette, ignored up until now ran over to the downed hollow. "Stay over with me," called Stark.

Loth shifted his gaze over to the young girl, "Let her have it," he turned back to Stark and shrugged his shoulders, "it barely had any reitsu to begin with," turning back to the corpse he scrunched up his eyebrows as though trying to solve a rather difficult problem, "though I was sure it had more."

He then looked back to the man in front of him, "But you're wrong, this is my hunting ground," Loth held up a hand to forestall Starks rebuttal, "it was my hunting ground before the Aztec's were more than just a memory and I know for a fact that neither of you had laid claim to anything in Hueco Mundo back then."

Stark's eyes narrowed as he studied the man in front of him, "How could you possibly know that?"

Loth turned his body so that he was facing Lilinette who, having drained whatever was left of the corpse, had decided to climb the nearest quartz tree and was now swinging from the sturdiest branch she could find, "Tell me something," still facing the young girl he shifted his gaze towards Stark, "are you her angel?"

As soon as the words left his lips Stark had reached out his arm and wrapped his fist around Loth's throat; Stark would have broken Loth's neck right then and there if that were possible. As it was not he just cut of the other man's airway. Loth's eyes immediately went wide with panic and he began clawing at Stark's wrist.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't tear your head off right now," Stark hissed, focusing his enormous reitsu on the defenseless man in his grasp causing Loth's appendages to cease struggling and go limp while his eyes rolled back in his head. After a few moments of listening to the other man attempt to gasp for air Stark releases his hold allowing Loth to crumple to the ground on his hands and knees, coughing and attempting to slow his pulse, "start talking."

After taking a moment to collect himself Loth was able to give what he hoped was an adequate answer, "I *cough* I was there when the quincy were wiped out," at Stark's threatening glare Loth quickly elaborated, "but not by choice, look *hack* I meant to go to Germany but somehow I get pulled to a mansion riddled with hollows with a bunch of French quincy running everywhere blasting everything in sight."

Standing Loth continued to rub his neck, "Christ you've got a hell of a grip; anyway rather than get mixed up in what I assumed was going to be the last stand of the quincy I decided to investigate this mansion everyone was so interested in. Imagine my surprise when I found what appeared to be the vengeful spirit of a young girl.," with that he turned to look at Lilinette who had broken off one of the trees branches and was now drawing random patterns in the sand, "I apologize for what I said earlier, I sometimes forget what it feels like to have attachments to individuals, but believe me when I arrived in that cellar I had no intention of harming her and that hasn't changed,".

"Do you expect me to believe that you will never have any desire to harm me and mine?"

Loth faced Stark, "Over the years I have been many things but a child killer is not one of them. Besides I've felt your power and I don't think I'll ever be able to take you on".

Stark looked over the wasteland they were on, "So we're in your territory?"

"No," at Starks confused look Loth continued with a bemused grin, "my territory extends from that tree about twenty feet all around making her the only one "invading" my land."

At that Stark let out a laugh, "What happened, someone else run you out and you got stuck with the dregs".

"Yeah," Loth smiled faintly, "I guess you could say that."

When he was finished laughing Stark called to Lilinette, "Come on, we're going home".

They started to leave, Stark leading the way with the blurry young girl always keeping to his shadow. After walking twenty paces or so Stark came to an abrupt halt, almost forcing his shadow to run into his back.

"What do you think you're doing," he asked without turning around.

Loth halted a few paces behind the duo, "Following you".

Stark and Lilinette turned around simultaneously, "Why would you want to do that and for that matter why would we let you?"

"Because you're like me, completely utterly bored." Loth looked to the sky and raised both his hands as if to encompass the world, "This world is so stagnant it's unbearable; nothing ever changes, don't you ever feel the need to see or hear something new something fresh. The two of you are the first people I've met in this world that I feel I can actually learn something from and you from me. I would be a fool to pass up this chance, don't you agree?"

"No I don't," Stark turned back towards his home, "you're going to follow me anyway so you might as well come along."

Loth hurried to walk alongside Stark, "So I never asked, what are your names?"

The cave was large, a wide open space with a path that led from the mouth more or less strait to the back where a lone chair carve of stone sat. Stark was currently languishing in said chair while Lilinette crouched off to the side, attempting to stack small rocks, though every time she got up to three her shaking hands would cause the tower to fall. Loth was sitting on a slight incline off the side of the path watching as the tower fell once again.

"She doesn't talk nor can she remember a thing from her past life, that's one of the most tragic things I've ever heard," said Loth, "but I've got to ask what is she; she feels like a Vaste Lorde but not and why is she so out of focus."

Stark leaned forward and fixed his sleepy gaze on his new guest, "Lilinette is stuck in a state of perpetual evolution, she reached her limit, just as you have, but she reached it the moment she started to turn into a Vaste Lorde, as for her appearance, well, it's a side effect of her condition, she is constantly using sonido, thought you would've been able to sense that."

"I'm not there yet," Loth glanced at Stark, "I still haven't reached my limit." At Stark's questioning look Loth explained, "When I no longer had to worry about devolving, when the hunger became more of an annoyance than something to be alarmed about, I quit hunting. As for the sonido," he lifted a few of his tentacles, "I haven't been able to move like that in centuries."

"Why," Stark leaned forward, "why would you consciously slow your development to a crawl and decide to live underground?"

"Because I don't desire power." Loth explained, "Aside from that old fart Yamamoto I have no real enemies," he held up a hand to stop whatever Stark was going to say, "I don't hate shinigami or quincy, though I do not like all of their ideals, nor do I have any desire to impose my will over anyone. All I really want is to be allowed to live in the real world, for as long as I can."

"So let me get this straight," said Stark, "You're saying that rather than bolstering your power here so you can actually stand a chance against the upper echelons of Soul Society when you take these idiotic trips to the living world you'd rather stay weak and hope they pass you by?"

"Well I may not be on your level but I've been able to hold my own against the captain commander," Loth scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, "for about forty seconds, besides, why fight when you can just dampen your reitsu till it's unnoticeable. I mean did you notice that I was right in front of you, though I admit I didn't sense you cause I was asleep but you get the point. Problem is over the years I've gotten a bit paranoid about the other side and only stay there for a few years at the most."

"Yes I understand you have great control of your reitsu output," Stark said while waving his arm in the air as if to brush that fact off as though inconsequential, "but that doesn't answer the question of why you would want to go to the world of the living, I understand you're bored but why not just look for others. I mean there must be hundreds of colonies of Adjuchas looking for a leader?"

Loth sat back and got a faraway look in his eyes, finally he said, "At first I went back just to see how my old home was doing. It had been awhile since I'd left but a lot of things had stayed the same, there was still corruption and poverty everywhere you looked and I started to wonder, is this the limit of what humans can achieve, so I set off to find if there was some culture where the distance between those at the top and the people on the bottom was not so wide. On my travels I saw some truly horrific things, whole villages burned to the ground and every man, woman, and child slaughtered because they happened to have a different skin color or believed in a different set of gods; I have nothing against having faith in a higher power but to kill because of it … I still can't comprehend why anyone would do that."

Lilinette appeared next to Stark and curled up in his lap, making herself as comfortable as possible, though digging her elbow into Stark's stomach forcing him to shift his position to accommodate her, "So if you've seen all that stuff why go back?"

"I'll admit the thought had crossed my mind more than once, in fact I had just arrived on what I thought would be my final trip to the living world when I met, or rather, saw a man that changed how I looked at the world." Loth leaned forward and looked Stark dead in the eyes, "Leonardo da Vinci, a man without peer. I saw him sitting there working on what would become The Last Supper; entranced by his work I spent most of the day I meant to be observing how Italian society was run watching this short bearded man sit in a room and color Judas Iscariot's robe."

"The next day I went back to his home hoping to see him continue his work on that masterpiece. Imagine my surprise to find the man puttering about working on several different experiments at once, none of which were even in the same field of study as another, this one was on botany, this one an invention for a flying machine, he even, at one point, stopped what he was doing dropped picked up a viola and began to play as though he had been playing for all his life." Loth smiled, "I was so entranced with the man that I began to seek out others like him, men with vision, men who created beauty not just for themselves but for the whole world and do you know what I found?"

Stark fixed his eyes on the ceiling as though pleading that Loth would wrap it up soon so he could get some sleep, "What".

"Scores of them, in all fields of study, in all countries of the world; I realized that the reason, up until that point, I had only seen the bad in humanity was because that's all I had been looking for, it was all I had known when I was alive so anything else was completely alien and should be ignored. Mind you I still see the darkness in the world but over the years I've seen the world take small but noticeable steps in what I hope is the right direction. On my last visit to the real world I finally heard what I had been waiting for centuries to hear, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" granted the American government only meant white, protestant, males but I refuse to believe that it will stay that way. Honestly, I'm looking forward to my next visit if Mexico or Canada adopt the American ideal and enforce it to its entirety yet keep their individuality we, the human race, could be one giant step closer to a utopia."

Stark finally closed his eyes, "Loth don't take this the wrong way but you're completely insane; now be quiet and go to sleep."

A/N I thought about breaking this into two chapters but I felt they would've been a bit light, unfortunately I've got the same problem with the next one. Oh well, we'll see how it goes. Yeah Loth's kinda a fanatic, hope that doesn't come up to bite him later on.


	4. You're not alone

A/N I find myself using phrases like "fell to his knees" and "walked" to describe what Loth's doing even though he's pretty much an octopus from the waist down. I'd use other words if they existed but they don't so whatever.

**You're not alone**

Loth stayed with Stark and Lilinette through the night before he decided to take a trip back to the world of the living, staying out for a month. Stark began to think he'd gotten rid of the man when Loth stormed right through the opening of the cave, punched a twenty foot deep crater in the side wall, and then sat at his usual spot with a huff.

"Please don't throw a tantrum in my home," sighed Stark, "it's really giving me a headache."

Loth took a deep breath, held it for a moment, then let it out, "I just can't figure out how the old fart can still find me, I mean I completely dampen my reiatsu so I shouldn't turn up on their radar."

"Why don't you just get strong enough to kill him, cut the problem off at the source?"

"Can't," said Loth as he lay back to stare at the ceiling, "no matter how strong I get there's always going to be something I can't do that he can. I've studied his moves and his only real weak point is something I can't exploit."

At that Stark leaned forward, "Go on."

"His zanpactou can control fire, alright, up close it's suicide but I've noticed that his long range attacks, though nothing to sneeze at, aren't quite as fast as one would suspect, problem is I have no long range attacks that he hasn't seen over a thousand times where as he can change the way his fire moves in an instant."

After a few weeks had passed Loth again set out for the world of the living but before he left Loth invited Stark and Lilinette to join him saying it might do them some good; they of course refused. However, this time Loth came back after only three weeks and in much higher spirits than the last time. When Stark asked why he'd returned so soon Loth replied that it was just a whim. And so it went for nearly a year, every few weeks Loth would travel to the real world, but not before offering Stark the chance to tag along which he would always decline, and each time Loth would return after spending less time on his trip than the last. It was nearly a year before anything of note would happen to this trio but when it did it took them all by surprise.

Stark jerked awake knocking Lilinette off of his lap, startling her, she in turn bounced around the cave waking the final occupant of their home.

"Wha, what's going on," mumbled Loth, "Lilinette you better not be trying to drop the roof on my head again."

"We're being invaded," said Stark as he made his way towards the entrance, "and if it's by who I think it is then that's a source of great concern."

Loth got up and followed after Stark, staying abreast with Lilinette, "So what are you going do if it is whoever this enemy of yours is."

"We are going to do what we have to in order to keep my territory safe," answered Stark.

Loth quickened his pace so that he could look Stark in the eye, "Whoa, hold on a second, when you say we I hope you're not factoring me in this plan cause, nothing personal or anything, but I've got no problem walking out on you two, remember I'm just here to sate my boredom."

"What happened to all that talk about humanity creating a utopia?"

"If you'll recall I also said I'd forgotten what it was like to be attached to somebody other than myself and frankly I don't see that changing anytime soon. I mean it's not like any of us have a real future in this place so why tie yourself down." Said Loth as he brought his eyes back on the way they were going.

Stark gazed up at the ever hanging crescent moon, "fair enough".

They eventually made it to the area that Stark said the reiatsu of the invader was originating from. Expecting to see a creature whose power rivaled Stark's own Loth was surprised to find a lone Adjucha milling about.

"This is it, this is the terrifying invader you were so worried about," Loth pointed at the creature, "the girl could've taken this thing out."

"Damn, I was afraid of this," said Stark, "alright, the reason I brought you along is because I need to show my enemy that I have strength to spare and what better way to do that then show that I have another Vaste Lorde on my side."

"Yeah, but remember the part where I said I'm not going to fight any of your battles for you," said Loth, "I'm not about to get wrapped up in a power struggle between two beings that significantly overpower me."

"Relax, I'm not asking you to fight anyone, here's what we're gonna do, when I start releasing my reiatsu towards that thing you do the same, we'll maximize our output and focus it on our target, killing it without having to lift a finger and proving that this land is off limits," Stark began to focus on the creature.

Loth sighed and did as he was asked hoping he wasn't painting a target on his back. The Adjucha noticed the change in reiatsu and began looking for the source; it quickly located the sources of power though by that time it was far too late, its legs crumpled beneath it and it became hard to breath. Moments later their target died.

"Alright," said Loth turning to the other man, "now what's the big deal? That thing was downright puny."

Stark turned to Loth, "It was a test; it was a way for my enemy to see just how strong I am which is why I have to show that no matter how large of an army he has I'll always be able to crush it."

"Who?" asked Loth, "Who's this enemy?"

"Ulquiorra," answered Stark, "the only person that might actually threaten Lilinette and me."

"I have no idea who that is," shrugged Loth.

"He's another Vaste Lorde, though I've never seen his face, a few decades ago he sent an army after me though when I went out to face them they turned tail and ran, when I caught up with them I found that they were so weak they couldn't even hope of threatening Lilinette let alone me. I captured one of the survivors and demanded to know why such a large force would retreat without even putting up a fight." Stark looked out to where his realm ended and Ulquiorra's began, "The creature said that they were ordered to simply make contact with the ruler of this land and then flee. Before I killed him my captive told me the order had come from another Vaste Lorde called Ulquiorra. Since then he's been sending things too test my strength."

Stark turned to face Loth, "I'm not sure how you don't know about any of this, I mean it's been going on for awhile."

"I told you I don't know anybody else here, hell you two are the first Vaste Lordes I've run into, at least as far as I know."

"Sometimes your ignorance astounds me," said Stark as he began to make his way through the sands, "I know you have no interest in this world but you should at least know who the different power players are."

Loth simply shrugged his shoulders as though saying that unless Stark would care to elaborate he was just fine without the knowledge.

"Do you at least know who Barragan is?" said Stark as he gave Loth a pleading look.

"Oh, the old bag of bones, okay so I know one other Vaste Lorde, probably the only one that's older than me," answered Loth, "but that's the only one I know besides you two I think."

Hoping to not have to explain who every single Vaste Lorde Stark began listing off names as they walked, "Do you know who Zommari is?"

"Nope."

"Cirucci Thunderwitch?"

"No."

"Halibel?"

"Not at all."

At that Stark stopped and turned to Loth, forcing Lilinette to bump into his back, "Your territory is within walking distance of hers, hell I'm willing to bet that some of the food you've eaten has threatened you saying that what you're doing will bring her wrath down upon you. How do you not know who she is?"

Loth gave him an odd look as though saying this whole line of questioning was stupid, "I don't talk to my food, I eat it."

By this time they had returned to Stark's home, Loth and Lilinette were about to go off to their usual spots when Stark called to them saying they'd be leaving shortly. He then went over to his throne, reached behind it and took out what appears to be a large grey piece of cloth similar to what he's wearing.

"Put this on," said Stark as he tossed it to Loth, "We're going to meet probably the only person I could call a friend in this place."

"Why am I wearing clothes?" asked Loth as he found the head hole, "I mean it's never really bothered you so why should it be a problem for your friend?"

Stark moved towards the mouth of the cave with Lilinette right behind him forcing Loth to trail after them, "Because she'll be offended if you don't act with respect."

Catching up with the duo Loth asked, "Like offended annoyed or offended tear my head off?"

"Tear your head off." Stark answered while looking out of the corner of his eye to make sure Loth had the cloth on straight.

Once Loth felt comfortable in his newly acquired clothing he turned to see exactly where they were going though at the moment all he could see was a great expanse of desert.

"So who is this friend of yours that we're going to meet," asked Loth, "and are we just going there because you hope that'll get rid of me?"

Stark smiled at that, "Her name is Halibel and no it's not just to get you out of my hair for awhile, though the thought had crossed my mind."

After awhile Loth asked, "Are you sure this is a good idea, I mean what if Ulquiorra attacks again while you're gone?"

"He won't," answered Stark, "he wants me dead not my territory. He wants to be the top of the food chain not just an emperor of sand."

Eventually they saw in the distance a single white tower, it reached up high into the sky dotted here and there with windows and balconies. The tower wasn't made of bricks all stacked on top of one another but seemed to be one giant stone carved into its present shape. When they got closer is was shown to only have one entrance, though the doorway was large enough to allow two elephants to walk side by side without any real difficulty with a small flight of stairs leading up to it. Standing at the bottom of the stairs was a tall, blonde, tan woman carrying a ridiculously large sword and wearing next to nothing.

Loth stared at Halibel for a minute then turned to Stark, "So why am I wearing this again?"

"Shut up," whispered Stark as they drew closer.

"What was she a nudist in her past life," mumbled Loth. Stark answered by punching him in the side knocking the wind out of him.

When they were within fifteen feet of each other Halibel raised her sword, not in a threatening gesture but in a way it seemed to be a salute to a fellow warrior. Stark in turn smiled and gave a lazy wave of his hand.

"Halibel," said Stark, "how long's it been, ten, twenty years?"

"A little less than thirty," Halibel answered with a hint of a smile on her face, "Who's your friend?"

Stark gestured for Loth to step forward, "His name is Loth Elcho and I'd say he's more of an annoyance than a friend."

Shooting Stark a dirty look Loth said, "Well, thanks for the first impression you ass."

At that Halibel let out a laugh as soft as the coo of a dove, "Don't worry, he says that about anybody who's ever kept him from sleep. Well I suppose as the host I should show you around, Stark as always you can do whatever you want."

Stark decided to stay with Halibel and Loth saying that he didn't have anything else to do at the moment and it always took him a while to fall asleep in new places. The interior of the tower was much like the exterior, white but with varying shades for the walls and floor, with the walls giving off a glow to illuminate their path. Halibel explained that the walls would lose their radiance in the different chambers if the one who occupied it were to focus a bit of their reiatsu on the walls. As they ascended the different flights of stairs Loth noticed a large number of other hollows going from place to place each missing a piece of their mask, though some had humanoid bodies most were misshapen. This one had blue skin and a lizard tail, that one's arms reached its knees and had extra elbow joints.

Their host showed them the bed chambers that were not in use at the moment and told them they could choose whichever one was to their liking, after which she left them saying she had to survey her realm. Finding themselves alone Loth decided to wander around a bit while Stark and Lilinette went off and did their thing. While walking on what he assumed was one of the top floors he heard voices coming from around the corner. His curiosity piqued Loth followed the voices and found they originated from a balcony overlooking the sands of Hueco Mundo. Staying out of sight Loth looked over to see three women arguing over.

"I don't need your help on this Mila Rose," yelled a blue haired hollow with antlers and golden eyes with red marks underneath them, "I can patrol just fine on my own!"

A tall dark woman with a long mane of hair, half dark brown half blonde, who was wearing even less clothing then Halibel and who Loth guessed was Mila Rose yelled back, "If I had any faith that you weren't completely brain dead I wouldn't be here. Remember what happened last time Apache. You screwed up and let one in, Halibel had to go out and kill it herself."

At that it seemed that Apache and Mila Rose were about to start beating on each other, in fact Loth found the whole thing so amusing that he hadn't even noticed the third person with them until she spoke.

"Really, I know you two can't help it but try not to be complete idiots over something as simple as this."

She had long hair the color of a dense forest, wore a dress that went down to her knees or it would if she had any, out from under the dress she had a serpent's body with scales that glittered like diamonds. She talked with her sleeve in front of her mouth only giving teasing glimpses of her ivory skin; her eyes were a pale violet which reminded Loth of parts of the sky at dusk. She moved with a poise and grace he hadn't ever seen in this world and rarely in the other and radiated strength and dignity that even Halibel fell short on. In short, to Loth she was absolute beauty.

"If you both need each other to take care of such an easy task why don't you both do it and give the rest of us some peace and quiet," she said as she began to walk away, the other two being too infuriated to say anything.

She came to an abrupt stop when she almost collided with Loth who was still dazed over seeing this goddess in such a bleak world. After waiting a moment to see if he would move she made to brush past him.

"Wait," he said as he turned toward her, hoping to catch a glimpse of her face or if not then at least to see more of her figure, "my name is Loth Elcho, I just arrived with Stark and was given a grand tour of this magnificent tower by Miss Halibel, I apologize but I don't believe I caught your name, might you tell me who you are?"

The woman continued on her way without so much as a glance back, "Someone who doesn't have time to waste on smooth talking scoundrels," she then disappeared in a burst of static.

At that moment Apache and Mila Rose, having gotten over their shock, burst through the doorway intent on giving chase, completely ignoring Loth.

"Get back here," yelled Apache, "when I get my hands on you Sun-sun I'm going to make you into a pair of boots!"

"Sun-sun," whispered Loth, "what a beautiful name."

A/N This one took longer cause Thursday night while I was asleep my computer decided it would restart itself, for some reason it dumped everything I'd written except for the first half page forcing me to rewrite almost everything from memory. Very frustrating. Also I have no idea what to call those clothes that Stark and Lilinette were wearing after they were "born" so I just kept it as non specific as I could.

I know what you're thinking, "Love at first sight, isn't that kind of lazy?" no I'd planned that from the beginning I mean how many fics do you read where one of the characters falls in love with the other the moment they set eyes on them. That's not to say Sun-sun's gonna fall head over heels for Loth in the next chapter, he's gonna have to work for it.


	5. Out of my league

A/N Took me longer to write this due to some other projects I'm working on, unfortunately they're not all done so I'm not sure when the next chapter will be out. I've got a few more chapters until I start writing blind, seriously I've got ideas for the middle part but nothing concrete.

**Out of my league**

The room Loth had chosen was nice, if you liked white which Loth had long since developed a hatred for, with an actual bed, carpet, and a door that led out to a small balcony; the fact that the balcony just gave a view of the large expanse of desert he had been looking at for the last several centuries made Loth come to the conclusion that he would never walk through that door. The first thing Loth did when he entered the room was take off the ridiculous piece of clothing Stark had forced him to wear and throw it in a corner. He then marveled at the first bed he would sleep in since he'd died, it looked so comfortable Loth almost didn't mind that it was white.

When first he lay down is felt as though he were on a cloud drifting away toward the horizon; however, try as he might Loth could not get to sleep. It made sense, he supposed, after so long of just sleeping in the sand or on the cold hard ground any amount of comfort would be a bit unsettling, of course it couldn't be because every time he closed his eyes he saw dark green hair and alabaster skin. Loth left the comfort of the pillows, mattress, and sheets and lay down on the carpet, curling into himself for warmth, and closed his eyes again yet still seeing her on the back of his eyelids.

Several hours later Loth got up from his spot on the ground, grabbed what passed as clothing, and headed for the door hoping to find Sun-sun or at least someone who could tell him where she was. As it happened the first person he ran into was Lilinette who, oddly enough, was alone; this occurrence was so strange that Loth forgot for the moment who he was looking for.

"Hey kid," Lilinette immediately kicked him in the stomach after that, "Ow, fine, Lilinette do you know where Stark is?"

Lilinette seemed to hesitate before deciding on her next course of action, when she did she grabbed Loth's hand and quickly moved through the tower. They ascended the nearest staircase took a few turns and then went up the next, higher and higher they went until Loth was sure they were going to hit the ceiling. However, they stopped on a rather odd floor, odd because it had no real outer wall more like part of a wall that would come up to one's waist and then it stopped giving, if one were willing to walk, a 360 degree view of the surrounding area with no ceiling so even airborne attacks would be easily spotted. There appeared to be only one room or at least one door into the round spire in the center of the area which rose several feet above their heads. Assuming that was where Stark was Loth made his way over to the door but before he got within ten steps Lilinette grabbed onto him and began to pull him back around the side until they were be out of view of anyone exiting the door.

As soon as they were around the corner Loth turned to Lilinette, "What? Why would you bring me here if you're not gonna let me go through the door?"

Still holding on to him Lilinette pointed to the door, several moments later Stark exited the room looking much as he always did though his hair was a bit less neat than usual. Loth started towards him before being roughly pulled back again. Looking to his companion he noticed her staring at the door Stark had exited as though she thought someone else would come out. After a few moments of waiting Loth made his way towards Stark who had begun to go down the stairs; however, to get to him Loth had to pass the open door, what he saw was surprising to say the least.

It was a large open space with a spiral staircase in the middle leading to what Loth assumed was the roof, there was some furniture most notably a large bed whose sheets had been tossed around sometime in the night, as well as a large table with several chairs around it. The size of the room and the furniture were not the things that gave him pause, what really surprised Loth was who he saw in the room. There, in the center of the room at the top of the tower stood Halibel looking very much relaxed as well as very naked, fortunately she was looking away from the door at the moment and rather then get killed for staring at her Loth decided to hurry after Lilinette who had already made it to the stairs.

Stark seemed to be just wandering around which was good because Loth would like to avoid notice for the moment, unfortunately Lilinette decided to run over to Stark forcing Loth to either choose to follow her and get caught by the perpetually sleepy man or go back up the stairs and risk being killed by Halibel for seeing her is a state of undress. Taking a moment to think it over Loth decided to shift his skin color to blend into the environment, hoping he wouldn't be noticed.

Stark turned upon seeing Lilinette and raised an eyebrow before looking over back the way he'd come, "You can come out you know, I'm not gonna be angry or anything."

"How'd you know I was there?" asked Loth as he shifted back to his usual colors, "I thought I did rather well at hiding myself."

"Two things," said Stark, "one, whenever I come up here Lilinette never comes for me I go to her and two, you shifted your skin but not your clothing."

Loth looked down at himself, "Damn it," he looked back at Stark, "so you're not pissed that I know about you and Halibel?"

"No, it's not like I hide it or anything I just don't go advertising my personal relationships. More importantly, why were you looking for me anyway?"

At that Loth paused before slapping his forehead, "Aw crap I was looking for Sun-sun before I got sidetracked by all this drama."

"Sun-sun," said Stark with a questing look in his eye, "why would you be looking for her?"

"Probably for the same reason you wanted to come here. Do you have any idea where she lives in the huge place?"

"Whatever, I'm not gonna judge you on your taste in women," said Stark as he scratched his head, "I don't really keep up on where any of the others live so you'll have to find her on your own but if I had to guess I'd look for Apache or Mila Rose. Chances are she'll be with either of them and if not then they at least know where her room is."

At that Loth began to leave, but before he got too far he turned back, "Oh, could you do me a favor, if you see her don't let her know that I know her name." at Stark's confused look he elaborated, "Well, when we met she didn't really give me her name, I just heard it by accident and if I go up to her and call her by name she might think I'm some sort of stalker."

"Yeah," said Stark, "cause trying to find where she lives isn't at all what a stalker would do."

"Hey, this place is freaking huge, it could be weeks before we bump into each other again," rather than continue along that train of thought Loth decided to leave his two companions and go in search of the green haired woman or at least her two loud friends.

It took him most of what he considered a day in this stagnant world before he saw anybody who might at all be useful in finding her, the two women who apparently couldn't agree on anything. Predictably they were having yet another argument.

"He'll help us for sure this time," said Apache as the two made their way down the hall, "I hear Barragan tried to attack him not that long ago and he pushed the old fart back easily. It'd be a cinch for him to do it again."

Mila Rose shook her head to that, "There's no way he'd do that for someone who doesn't need his help and besides, even if Halibel wanted him to fight the old guy there's no way she'd ask for it."

Rather than wait for them to finish talking or at least look up and see him Loth decided the direct approach would be quickest so he slid up next to Apache and made his presence known, "Hey Apache," he said raising his hand, "you and Mila Rose ever get tired of fighting."

This of course took both women by surprise so much so that they ignored the veiled insult Loth had greeted them with.

"Who the hell are you," said Apache as she looked him up and down, "I didn't think Halibel-sama was taking any new recruits."

At that Mila Rose whacked her partner on the shoulder, "She's not and he obviously came with Stark yesterday." Turning back to Loth before Apache could retaliate she asked, "But yeah, who are you?"

"Loth," he said, "Loth Elcho, but more importantly could I ask you two for a favor?"

"What kind of favor," asked Apache.

"Well, when I first met or rather saw you two there was another woman with you. If you could tell me where she is or where her room is I'll let you two get back to whatever you were doing."

At that Mila Rose got a strange look in her eye, "Why are you looking for her?"

"Oh, no reason," Loth shifted his gaze off to the wall, "just curious is all."

Apache leaned over so her face took up his entire field of vision, "You're gonna have to be a bit more specific, we know a lot of people so if you could give us a name or," she leaned in even closer, "perhaps describe what she looks like."

"Uh," Loth backed up, "she's got green hair, pale white skin, and scales that glitter like diamonds."

At that last part a grin split Apache's face that matched the one on Mila Rose, "Ha, you freaking love her. You hear that everyone someone actually has feelings for miss snake for brains."

Loth turned away and hoped the heat he felt on his face wasn't showing, "I just said I was curious."

Mila Rose started poking his cheek, "Look he's blushing and everything."

Having her hand knocked away by Loth didn't deter her from laughing her head off, "Oh Apache we've got to tell him where she lives, it'll be hilarious later on." Without waiting for a reply she went on, "go down one floor, it'll be the third door on the left."

Rather than continue listing to the two laugh, Loth made his way to what he hoped was Sun-sun's room and not one of Mila Rose's jokes. Fortunately it was the correct room as Sun-sun was just leaving, however this put Loth in a bit of an awkward position as he'd not thought about what he'd say once he met her again. For her part Sun-sun was mildly surprised that the man she'd just met yesterday and had hopefully put in his place would again show himself before her.

"Um, hello," said Loth, "so, uh, nice place you've got here, ah, miss?" at her continued silence he continued, "I just met Apache and Mila Rose and I've gotta say if I had to babysit those two imbeciles I'd be tearing my hair out in frustration."

At that Sun-sun smiled a bit, although Loth didn't know it due to her sleeve covering her mouth, "Anyway," Loth said, "I know this might sound a bit sudden but if you're not doing anything would you like do something or go somewhere?"

She actually let out a laugh to that, "You must be joking, we've only just met and you're trying to take me on a date. You must either have a rather high opinion of yourself or a low opinion of me."

Loth got a sort of panicked look on his face and held up his hands hoping to dissuade the idea, "No, no I didn't mean it like that, I mean I think you're beautiful…"

Sun-sun cut him off, "Oh, so that makes me easy, look if you're looking for someone to sleep with try Mila Rose, she probably hasn't had anyone for decades.

"What, no I didn't mean you looked easy I just," at that Loth stopped seeing the corners of her eyes crinkled in mirth, "hang on, you're just screwing with me aren't you."

"Yes, but only because you're so easy," she said, "Why are you so interested in me anyway?"

Loth just looked at her and said, "Because you are gorgeous and spending eternity alone gets to be lonely."

After a moment had passed Sun-sun began to make her way down the hall, "You are a strange one."

"Wait," said Loth, "can I at least get your name?"

"You already know where my room is; I think you know enough about me." Sun-sun replied as she rounded a corner.

"There's no way I'll ever know enough about her," thought Loth, "Oh well, at least she doesn't think I'm just following her around like a lost dog."

A/N Next time.

Will Loth let it slip that he does know Sun-sun's name and thereby make her think he's completely obsessed with her. Will Sun-sun fall head over heels in love with our sort of hero (more anti-hero)? The answers to all these questions and more in our next installment but if I had to guess I'd say no.

I'm running on left over Halloween candy, not a lot of kids this year.


	6. A matter of pride

**A matter of pride**

The next day Loth went directly to Sun-sun's room in the hopes of getting her to take him up on his offer of getting her to do something, go somewhere, or, perhaps at the very least, get Sun-sun to introduce herself but once again Sun-sun shot him down saying she had better things to do than waste time with some overly enamored mollusk. This did not deter Loth in the slightest for he asked if there was anything she needed help with but again she declined his offer with little more than a wave of her hand before disappearing in a burst of static with Loth not far behind. It went on like that; everyday Loth would go to Sun-sun's room, usually right when she was leaving, and ask the same questions and every time she would decline. This went on for a week, a week in which Loth rarely ever saw anyone else, before Halibel called everyone who lived in the tower, excluding Stark, Lilinette, and Loth, to gather on the first floor's meeting room.

Rather than follow Stark and Lilinette's lead and ignore the goings on with the tower's residents Loth decided to wait just outside of the meeting room concealing both his reiatsu as well as his physical appearance, this time foregoing clothing, and just for good measure he stuck himself midway up the far wall. He couldn't hear what was going on in the room but since there wasn't any overt use of reiatsu Loth figured that nobody was being punished for anything. After awhile the doors opened and Halibel strode out so fast that Loth was forced to climb up to the ceiling, sticking himself there thanks to the suction cups on his tentacles. Not long after that Sun-sun, Apache, and Mila Rose came out and immediately headed for the exit of the tower.

"See," said Apache, "if we head out right away we'll get all the big stuff while everyone else will be sucking on the dregs."

At least this time we have a plan." muttered Mila Rose, "Last time we waited until the last minute and got next to nothing. Halibel wasn't too happy with us after that."

Sun-sun was trailing behind, not quite as gung ho about the whole ordeal, giving Loth the opportunity to drop down just behind her and fall into step.

"So," he said, "where are we going, somewhere fun I hope?"

Sun-sun let out a sigh from behind her sleeve, "We, the people that actually live here, are going out; you are staying here." At that point she turned to face Loth, "And … you're naked," her eyes widen and she almost tripped at that little discovery, quite an achievement considering the lack of legs.

Loth looked down at himself and raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, looks like it. Anyway what's going on?"

"You truly are a scoundrel," replied Sun-sun as soon as she got over her shock, to which Loth only smiled, "it's just a little chore we have to do every few decades."

"Is it dangerous?" he asked.

"Not really."

At that Loth gave her a look, "Not really isn't a no. Do you need my help?"

"I'll be fine."

"Do you want my help?"

"No."

They continued walking in silence, one simply enjoying the other's company, the other hoping her companion would not insist in helping. When they got to the exit Loth surprised Sun-sun by saying that if she ever needed help he'd always be there, then he wished her luck in whatever she was doing and headed back the way they'd came. She stood there for a moment watching him leave and then turned to the door.

Loth meandered through the tower, not with any destination in mind and in no hurry to get dressed, trying to keep his mind of off what was going on outside and utterly failing. Rounding a corner brought him almost face to face with Stark, again Lilinette was nowhere in sight; by now it was common knowledge that she liked to wander around the place, usually looking for some fun. Loth hesitated before speaking, wondering if by asking what was on his mind if it would be an invasion of privacy for the green haired beauty or if she had severely understated the danger of this thing just to keep him from sticking his nose in her business. After a few seconds he convinced himself it was better for her to be mad at him then get hurt or worse.

"So," he began, "seems there's a lot happening today. I wonder where everybody went?"

At that Stark rolled his eyes, "Is that your not too subtle way of saying you want to know what's going?"

"Yeah well, I don't really have that much experience in the whole dialog department." at Stark's continued silence Loth continued, "Yes I'd like to know what is happening out there and whether or not it's life threatening."

Before beginning his explanation Stark leaned his back against the wall, Loth mirroring him on the other side, "For some reason every thirty years Barragan sends his armies to try and take this realm, the army is so massive it would be completely idiotic to fight head on, of course Halibel would have no trouble defeating it but then when his majesty comes a knocking he'd slaughter her due to fatigue. Fortunately, Barragan doesn't have any Vaste Lorde in his ranks which is where this particular strategy they're carrying out comes in. See the distance between the tower and the point where Halibel's territory hits Barragan's is pretty big, much larger than the distance between hers and mine, meaning it's a much larger hunting ground for Halibel's forces but that also means there's plenty of food for an invading force, so right before the invasion starts Halibel sends her people out to kill and devour all the hollows in the realm effectively starving Barragan's forces."

"Why don't they just eat each other?" Loth asked.

"Some do," answered Stark, "but Barragan believes that numbers win wars and probably orders his men to reframe from acting on their instincts. He's powerful enough that when he talks people listen, even if it kills them."

"Sounds like you've seen Barragan in action. Has he ever come for your land?" though Loth could guess what the answer would be.

Stark got a faint grin on his face when he remembered the only attempt the "king of hueco mundo" made to seize his realm, "He tried once, came at me with an army so large it was way too much of a bother to fight them all, so I just bypassed the army and told his majesty that my land is off limits. I haven't had a problem since."

They were quiet for a few moments before Loth made up his mind, "When the battle starts I'm sticking with Sun-sun."

Stark shook his head, "You really shouldn't, I mean if you're following her throughout the battle what do you think that'll do to her pride?"

"Pride huh, I'll never understand," sighed Loth, "I'll never understand you quincy's and your pride, hell even the code is pure insanity as far as I'm concerned."

"I'm not a quincy anymore," muttered Stark, "and I didn't think the code was that difficult to comprehend," he continued, "rather than allow evil souls to continue existing in the circle, like what the shinigame do, wouldn't it be better to get rid of them entirely, or at least that's what I thought."

"I wouldn't have a problem if they just used their powers to protect a town but from what I saw they actively hunted down hollows in the wilderness, sentencing all of them to oblivion." Said Loth, "I also don't get where the whole evil spirits thing comes from, I mean you should know it's not as though all hollows are evil."

At that Stark got a hard look on his face though Loth didn't notice, "I understand that emotions get involved cause the hollows attack and kill family members but did it ever cross any of your minds that some of the hollows you sentenced might have been part of your friends and family."

That caught Stark off guard, for a man who took pride in his intelligence to have such a glaring truth slap him in the face like that was incredibly jarring. Stark took a moment to evaluate such a thought before quickly coming to the conclusion that it was something he really didn't want to think about so he quickly changed the subject.

"Seems you know a lot about quincies, you happen to be one in your past life?" asked Stark.

"Didn't even cross his mind," thought Loth before he answered, "Hell no, I didn't even know there was such a thing as reiatsu when I was alive. No, I've just eaten enough of them to have a pretty good understanding, though I've gotta say they are by far the strangest things I've ever eaten, no offense."

"None taken," replied Stark, "as I said, I'm not a quincy anymore, but strange how?"

"Well," began Loth, "aside from the regular human souls, which I'm sure you've noticed are bland as hell, each soul has its own unique flavor, some hollows are sweet while some shinigame are bitter and vice versa. But the quincy are different, sure at least you can taste them but they're all pretty much the same."

"What do you mean," asked Stark.

Loth took a moment to try and figure out how he would describe what a quincy tasted like, "They're crunchy, like biting into a head of lettuce, but also kinda salty though not in a bad way. I'm not sure how to describe it but the important part is that they're all the same, I don't know if it's to do with the fact that they all pretty much have the same powers or what but over the years I've eaten dozens possibly hundreds and it's like I'm eating the same person over and over, just with different power levels."

"Do you suppose I taste the same as the rest of them?" asked Stark with a hint of a smirk.

Loth closed his eyes and shook his head, "No, as you said you're a hollow now."

With that Loth turned and began to make his way down the hall, as he began to turn a corner Stark called after him, "She'll be insulted if you help her, you know. There's a difference between looking out for someone and babying them."

Loth just waved his hand and continued on his way, his feet taking him first to his room, which when he realized where he was going he immediately changed his destination, then to Sun-sun's living quarters. When he got to the door Loth stopped and stared at it for a moment, hoping it would still be her room when the fight with Barragan would be over and done with, before moving on up the tower. On the outside he appeared cool and collected but inside countless scenarios were playing out through his head each more gruesome than the last, each and every one featured Sun-sun being killed, this one due to a cheap shot from a low level hollow this one Barragan himself came and cut her down.

Eventually Loth made his way to the top floor, where he hoped he'd be able to watch what was going on down below and hopefully put his mind at ease. However, when he got up there, the reiatsu density made it abundantly clear he was not alone. Following the signal Loth found Halibel gazing out across the sands; figuring that was where all of her people were fighting Loth move over until he was about ten paces away and leaned against the banister with his head propped up in his hands. Looking out Loth could see in the distance a large number of hollows scattered here and there, though they were so far away that he couldn't make out any details.

They stood in silence for awhile before Halibel began to speak, "I've raised everyone in this tower, kept them well fed, protected them from those who would harm them. I've shared the joy they've felt as they grew and the sorrow of when a comrade has fallen." Loth kept silent, knowing where this was going yet allowing her to get there on her own, "I consider everyone here a part of my family and I would do anything to protect them."

Here she turned to face Loth, ignoring his state of undress for a more important matter, "It seems you've taken an interest in one of my subordinates and though she hasn't complained I want to make it abundantly clear, if you so much as make her cry I will kill you."

"If I were to ever make her sad I'd probably put my head on the chopping block for you," said Loth as he continued to look out across the sands.

The two of them continued to watch the people in the distance hoping that the ones that fell were not from the tower. After several hours they saw some of the hollows were making their way back, Loth immediately began to make his way down to the entrance while Halibel continued to watch the stretch of desert. He made it to the entrance in record time, though when he got there it was to discover that the ones who were coming back were a group of low level hollows. And so Loth waited. He waited and waited as more hollows passed him by, each time the door would open he would look up from his place by the door and each time when he saw that it was her he'd put his head back down.

Soon enough Loth was so desperate for answers that he was ready to take the next person who walked through that door and demand where Sun-sun was and why she had not yet returned. As luck would have it the next and last group to come in were Apache and Mila Rose, far too tired to argue, followed by a rather fatigued yet uninjured Sun-sun. Not sure what to say Loth settled for a relieved smile and a wave of the hand, which was acknowledged by Sun-sun collapsing against the wall. Loth quickly caught her before she slide to the floor, seeing that there was no one else in the hall he checked to see if she had any wounds. Coming to the conclusion that she was simply exhausted Loth picked her up and made his way to her room, meeting nobody on the way up, apparently everybody else was just as tired as Sun-sun.

As made his way to her room, praying that it was unlocked the entire way up, he passed the open doors of Apache and Mila Rose, both passed out on their beds, too tired to even pull the sheets up. Fortunately Sun-sun's door was not locked so, thanks to his tentacles, Loth was able to open the door without waking the woman in his arms. Laying her on her bed he brought the sheets up to her waist, thinking she might be uncomfortable wearing her dress and the sheets at the same time. For the first time Loth was able to get an unobstructed view of her face without having to worry about getting her to her bed. Sun-sun looked so peaceful with her mouth slightly open, her alabaster skin seeming to glow in the moonlight, long olive-green hair spread out under making it seem as though she were laying on a bed of moss. Loth took a moment just to watch her sleep; after all he hadn't really seen her face up until now so why not take the time to enjoy it.

After awhile Loth got up from his place at the side of the bed and headed out the door, but not before taking one last look back at the green haired beauty and wishing she wouldn't have to fight in the coming battle. As he made it back to his room his mind was again full of different scenarios in which the woman he loved would be killed, each more terrible than the last. It was several hours before his mind was able to relax enough that Loth could get some sleep.

Over the next two days Loth would often find himself either on the top floor, usually alone though occasionally with Halibel, searching the desert for any signs of hostility or on the sands of Hueco Mundo on the edge of Halibel's territory wishing they lived in a less barbaric world. On the third day Halibel again called her citizens to, what Loth had dubbed, the meeting room; presumably to say that Barragan was on his way. Loth waited outside mulling over what Stark had said, while inside some last minute planning was going on. After several minutes the doors opened and, lead by Apach, Mila Rose, and Sun-sun, the hollows exited the tower. Loth followed Sun-sun through the sands until she stopped and turned to face him as the hollows began to split into smaller groups.

For once she seemed unsure of what she should say, seeing her discomfort Loth went ahead and asked the traditional question, "Do you need any help with this?"

That brought Sun-sun immediately back to reality, "No I don't," she then turned away with a huff, "you can go back inside, I'm perfectly capable of handling this on my own."

She began to move away, half hoping Loth would follow her, not because she desired his help in battle, but because she wanted to prove to him that what happened three days ago was nothing more than a fluke and that she could take care of herself.

"Alright," Loth sighed, "just … be careful." Sun-sun turned to see Loth beginning the long walk back to the tower; she was so surprised that he'd given up so easily that she didn't think to call out after him until he was beyond the first dune and out of sight. Loth for his part waited until he was out of sight before dampening his reiatsu and shifting his skin color to blend in before turning around to follow several hundred paces behind the green haired woman, fully intending to fight beside her from the shadows.

Sun-sun got into place just as Barragan's army came into view, at first the behemoth that was his army seemed terrifying, but on closer inspection many of them were dead on their feet. Without any signal given by either side the two armies charged each other, Halibel's forces clearly much more energetic than the invaders. Loth moved over the sand as quickly and quietly as possible, prepared to take down as many opposing hollows as he could, but before he could get close to his targets something caught the corner of his eye.

Apache, Mila Rose, and Sun-sun were all in the thick of battle; Apache basically punching everything in sight while Mila Rose used her sword to cleave her opponents in two, but it was Sun-sun that took Loth's breathe away. She was dancing through the chaos, that was the only way to describe it, with her left sleeve covering her face and her right arm extended to brush against the invaders who would die several seconds later. Though Loth could not see what exactly she was doing, due to her sleeve, he was still entranced by her beautiful and deadly dance; not a single opponent was able to get near her.

"Pride," he whispered as he watched her, unseen by anyone else, feeling it would be a shame if he were to interrupt her dance in anyway. Back and forth she would move, with the grace and pose of an angel, not an ounce of energy was being wasted in the fight, each move perfectly executed almost as though choreographed. Forgetting his original plan Loth continued to watch Sun-sun for the remainder of the battle, not once seeing her falter in anyway.

The fight dragged on for hours, Halibel's forces clearly decimating the fatigued invaders, until an enormous pulse of reiatsu roared from beyond the army. As one Barragan's army turned and began to retreat, giving no thought to their fellow hollows that were being picked off while their backs were turned, though most of the hollows from the tower decided to return rather than pick off the stragglers. At this point Loth shifted his skin back to its original color and began to make his way back to the tower, going unnoticed by all but one.

"Wait," called Sun-sun as she hurried after him, out of breath from all the fighting. When she'd caught up with him she took a moment to compose herself before continuing, "I thought I said I didn't need any help."

"Yeah, you did," said Loth as he scanned her for any wounds, finding none he went on, "and you were right."

That caused Sun-sun to pause for a moment, "You … you didn't actually fight?"

Loth scratched the back of his head and laughed a bit, "Well, I'll admit I followed you out here intending to help kill a few enemies all stealthy like but then I saw you fighting and I figured why spoil something so beautiful to watch, so I just hung back and believed in you."

Loth turned back towards the tower his companion stopped him again, "Sun-sun," he turned to look at her, "my name is Sun-sun." Though her sleeve was still covering part of her face a faint blush could clearly be seen.

Loth smiled at that and waited until she was next to him before they continued on their way back to the tower.


	7. The gift of life

A/N I forgot to write this during the first chapter but my second review (huzzah) reminded me of my policy for flamers (no that review wasn't a flame, it just reminded me). I will react to flames but rather than defend myself or argue my goal will be to confuse.

**The gift of life**

Everyone in the tower was completely drained after the battle, most physically three emotionally, so rather than having her citizens report on what happened and who was lost Halibel allowed all of her followers to get some much needed rest. As Loth got back to his room, after wishing Sun-sun a pleasant sleep, he thought about what would be next for the relationship he was attempting to cultivate.

"Should I try to impress her by defeating some giant hollow?" he thought as he grabbed the pillow, "no she lives with a Vaste Lorde that's more powerful than I'll ever be. Show her where I've been living for the past several centuries; god no, even I found that place depressing and that was before I knew about this place."

One after another ideas flew through his head, each being disregarded almost as soon as they'd formed. Loth picked up the blanket, went to his usual spot on the floor, and made himself comfortable while deciding that after getting some sleep he should be able to come up with something. He also wondered how long it would be until he'd be comfortable sleeping in a real bed. After an hour or so of sleeping Loth shot straight up and mentally hit himself over the head.

"God I'm so stupid sometimes." he hissed through his teeth, "The real world's filled with forests, mountains, cities, oceans, and a million other wonderful things. It absolutely perfect, just go show her the sights, have a good time, and watch out for shinigame, no problem."

With that thought in mind Loth was able to easily get to sleep with dreams of the two of them cruising around the world running through his mind. The next morning he sprang from his slumber like a kid on Christmas and ran as fast as he could up to Sun-sun's room, along the way surprising a rather sleepy Lilinette. When he got to her door Loth took a moment to get his breathing under control before knocking. After about a minute without an answer he said he was coming in and that if she wasn't dressed to please not hit him or throw anything. Closing his eyes and praying Sun-sun didn't keep anything heavy in her room Loth opened the door. After several moments of nothing happening he looked around and found the room to be empty, walking out to the balcony which was also devoid of life he gazed out across the sands, again seeing nobody.

Returning to the hallway Loth went to Apache's and then Mila Rose's rooms in the hopes that they may be able to shed some light on where their soft spoken companion might be; however, their rooms were also completely empty. Going up to Halibel's place proved pointless due to her being absent as well, in fact if Loth hadn't seen Lilinette on his way up he might have been a bit more worried. He went through every floor of the tower and every room he went to was found to be completely devoid of life. Eventually he made his way down to the meeting room just in time to see the doors open and the whole of the tower file out.

As the horde ascended the stairs Loth again stuck himself to the wall so as not to get swarmed and driven back the way he came. Once the majority of the populous had gone Mila Rose, followed by Sun-sun and Apache, began to make their way up. Once they'd reached the next floor Sun-sun split off from the group and began to make her way down a deserted corridor, when she was out of sight of the others she stopped in the middle of the hall.

"You can come out now," she said just before Loth dropped from the ceiling, turning to see him right himself Sun-sun couldn't help but let out a giggle, "was that really necessary, landing on your head like that?"

Once Loth was back on his feet, so to speak, he replied, "If it made you laugh then yes, I'm fine by the way. Anyway you're probably wondering why I'm following you."

"Not really," she said, "I figured you'd show up sooner or later. I'm just surprised you didn't want to speak to me before the funeral."

At that Loth paused before asking, "Wait, what funeral?"

"After every one of our battles we report to Halibel-sama, it's pretty standard, the enemies' strength, their tactics but we also tell her who we lost. After that we take a moment to remember the dead." Sun-sun's voice took on a melancholy tone at that part. "We didn't lose that many but here we are all family."

"Huh, well that's good I suppose," He said, then seeing the look Sun-sun gave him he quickly elaborated, "not the part about the deaths but the whole treating everyone here as family that's, well, that's very refreshing."

"Is it really so odd to treat the people you live with as family?" asked Sun-sun.

"Well I guess I'm just not used to it," Loth replied, "for the last several centuries I've been living as a hermit or a wanderer; I'm not too sure but both are valid. Before that was … let's just say my life wasn't exactly littered with happiness. But enough about that, you just came from a funeral, no need for that depressing talk there's more to life or unlife than loss and sorrow."

"Which reminds me," said Sun-sun, "why are you following me? I'm assuming you want something but usually you just come right out and say it, since you haven't it makes me think that whatever you're going to ask must be either very dangerous or very …"

"Exotic." Offered Loth.

"Compromising." Clarified Sun-sun with a roll of her eyes, "So which is it?"

"Neither, just the whole funeral thing kind of threw me off," he answered, "if you need some time for mourning that's fine by me."

Sun-sun waved it off, "No it's fine, I didn't really know who they were anyway. Think of it like losing a cousin you never met."

"Okay," began Loth, "I was thinking since the fight with Barragan is over and done with for the moment, why not take some time off, you know like get away from this place."

His green haired companion raised an eyebrow at that, "Go where? I'm pretty sure you've notice that this whole world is nothing but sand."

"Yeah, bleak doesn't even begin to describe this place," Loth said, "that's why I was thinking a change of scenery would be a good idea. How would you to see the real world?"

Sun-sun took a step back at that, "I'm sorry, I think I misheard you, did you say the real world?"

"The real world," he said, "oh you'll love it. There are so many different places to go and things to see granted since the general populous can't see us it'll just be you and me but it's still a good place for people watching."

"It's also a good place to get killed by the shinigame," she replied, "sorry but no amount of people to watch or places to go is worth risking our lives for."

"Oh come on, there is so much beauty over on the other side, it would be a shame for you to miss out on it. You know I'd never let anything happen to you, if we see a shinigame I promise we'll pack up and head back to hueco mundo."

Sun-sun shook her head to that, "No, I'm sure it's nice to look at but there is nothing there that could convince me to walk away from my family like that."

"I'm not asking you to abandon your home," said Loth, "just go out for a few days, a week at the most. Trust me you won't regret it."

Sun-sun began to move past him back towards the stairs, "Thanks but I'm quite content with my life here."

After she had gone Loth let out a sigh and wondered what he was going to do now that that plan had been shot down. Figuring that if his tenacity could get her to give him her name then it should work for this little endeavor, so the next day he asked again saying that they could even visit her old home however Sun-sun immediately declined that offer. And so it went, everyday Loth would offer to take Sun-sun to some, as he put it, wondrous place from the Himalayas to the Mayan pyramids and each time she would politely say that she would prefer to stay in the tower with her family.

Weeks went by and Loth began to feel that perhaps he should change strategies, "After all," he thought, "no matter how one describes the world it will never do it justice."

The next day Sun-sun was both surprised and a little disappointed when Loth didn't show up to ask her to go with him to the real world. The day after was a no show as well. Feeling a bit anxious she went to find Halibel. Once found she asked if Stark and Lilinette had left to which Halibel said that yes, they had gone yesterday morning but at the sad look Sun-sun had on her face she quickly went on to say that Loth hadn't gone with them and had instead opened a garganta after they left, saying he'd be back soon.

Loth meanwhile was tramping about the Canada/American border, wondering exactly what he should bring back, food was out of the question since he didn't think they could digest anything that wasn't made up of spirit particles. He supposed he could steal some piece of art or bring back a book but that wouldn't entice her to accompany him on these little outings; instead she would probably ask him to bring her back some more while she stayed in the tower.

So here he was, racking his brain, about a mile south of Montreal and walking in no real direction. Eventually he came upon a small French village used mainly as a waypoint by fur traders. Subconsciously deciding to take yet another detour and explore the place Loth found that there was a little less than a hundred people living there. He wandered around the village, thinking that some of the pelts in the stores might be a good gift but then discarding that idea as giving the fur of a dead animal that eerily reminded him of Apache didn't seem very romantic. Just as he was about to say goodbye to the quaint little town Loth happened upon another small shop, though this one sold something much different than the usual beaver and deer pelts, rather this one sold a wide array of flowers and like that he knew what would entice Sun-sun into coming here.

Browsing the mostly empty shop Loth picked out several red roses, tiger lilies, peonies, and bloodroot the last just because he liked the name though it still looked nice. Grabbing a vase by the counter, which was unoccupied due to the elderly shop keep having fainted once the first few flowers rose seemingly on their own, Loth filled it with water, arranged the flowers in the vase, and tore open a garganta back to hueco mundo.

Glad that the flowers had survived the trip Loth made his way up to Sun-sun's room, passing a few people on the way up he saw that everyone was doing what they normally did meaning Sun-sun should have an abundance of free time on her hands. Before knocking on her door he mentally prepared himself and did some last minute arranging to the flowers. When that was taken care of he announced his presence and, after he heard from inside that the door wasn't locked, entered.

"So," began Sun-sun, "what did you want to talk about?"

"Actually there was something I wanted to show you," said Loth as he presented the flowers to which Sun-sun's eyes practically lit up. As she took the vase in her sleeve cover arms he went on, "it's not much compared to the rest of the world but I thought you might like it."

Sun-sun smiled as she looked up from the flowers to face Loth, "Oh alright, tomorrow we'll go just let me clear it with Halibel first."

Loth smiled at that, "Wonderful, you won't regret this trust me."

For the next few hours Loth regaled Sun-sun with stories of the places he'd been saying they could go to any of them. After he left Sun-sun went up to Halibel's room to inform her that she would be gone for awhile and though she had some concerns the mistress of the tower wished her surrogate daughter well and told her to not be gone for too long.

The next day for the first time Sun-sun was up before Loth and knocking on his door before he was even out of bed forcing him to quickly grab his clothing and run his hands through his hair to make himself a bit more presentable before opening the door and showing her in. When she asked why she was coming in Loth said that the balcony in his room was the closest place he could make the doorway.

When they came out on the other side the first thing Sun-sun notice was that it was much cooler than she was used to, the next was they were standing in the middle of a cobblestone street face a tall hill with a large fortress on top.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"Salzburg," answered Loth as he looked around with a smile on his face, "located in the northwest corner of Austria. I figured in this location you can kinda see a lot of the different terrain in the world; this place has got a beautiful city, a large expanse of forest, mountains, and even a river. So, what do you think?"

Sun-sun took a look around her but all she could see were buildings on either side of the street, "Let's go up there," she said pointing to the fortress, "we can't see much from down here."

Loth led the way, the general populous of the city subconsciously let them pass, probably due to the spiritual pressure they could almost feel. When they got to the roof of the building they gazed out at the surrounding landscape.

"Oh my," whispered Sun-sun as she looked across the water to see the great expanse of forest and behind it rose mountains which seemed to touch the sky, the snow at the top glistening with the afternoon sun.

Still with a grin on his face Loth turned to his companion, "So what do you think?"

"I … I think the stories you told have vastly understated how," here she paused, looking for the right word, "majestic this place is. And the whole world is like this?"

"Nope," said Loth, "everywhere else is completely unique; there are places where it snows year round, cities covered in lights, I've even seen a city that was built on top of water. So what do you think was it worth it to come here?"

Sun-sun turned to him with a smile on her face, "Yes, yes it was."


	8. Dancing through life

**A/N I'm not really sure exactly when we are since I've used statements like "weeks later" and "after a few days" some I'm just gonna say it's around the middle of 1808. The date doesn't really matter at the moment (yet) I just like to know when I am.**

**Dancing through life**

They spent the next two days in the Salzburg area, exploring the town and surrounding forest, they even climbed one of the mountains though they didn't go all the way to the top. The town hall was where Loth and Sun-sun spent their nights as it was one of the few places where nobody was bound to step over their sleeping forms; of course first Loth had to go out and steal a few blanks and enough pillows that they fashioned into two crude beds. Loth was a bit disappointed that Sun-sun insisted on using separate rooms but then again, they hadn't packed any extra clothing so wearing them to bed would only make them stiff and uncomfortable.

Still every time he went to bed he had to consciously keep his mind off the naked woman in the next room. It was harder than he thought.

After their second night Sun-sun asked if they could go to the city of lights Loth had talked about to which he readily agreed. Though she had the condition that they return to the tower first so she could change her cloths. Getting back Loth decided to wait in his room rather than risk running into either Apache or Mila Rose who would no doubt tease him for this little endeavor.

When Sun-sun got back he told her their next destination would be a place called Paris, France. When they got there Sun-sun couldn't believe her eyes, they had come out on top of a house overlooking a large metropolis at twilight covered in tiny lanterns.

"Welcome," said Loth, "known as the most romantic city in the world I give you Paris."

"I'm starting to see a theme here," Sun-sun smiled as they made their way down to the city, "Flowers, taking me to 'the most romantic city in the world', I suppose next you'll write me poetry."

Loth laughed at that, "No no, I was never one for writing. Just be glad I haven't given you any of the stupid pet names I'd thought up early on."

"It wasn't something like snake princess or something even cheesier," she said with a wry grin.

"No, that would be too obvious and you know me," said Loth, "I'm all about subtly." Sun-sun rolled her eyes at that, "Using my not inconsiderable amount of creativity I came up with the name Verðandi."

"Verðandi," the green haired woman said with a raise eyebrow.

"One of the Norns," explained Loth, "in Norse mythology they are the weavers of fate, there's Urd who deals in the past, Verðandi's domain is the present, and Skuld represents the future. The first time I saw you you were with Apache and Mila Rose. Apache was focusing on the task at hand while ignoring what had happened earlier while Mila Rose only cared about her previous short comings. You, however, were able to focus on the present and give a solution that, sorta, worked for both of them ergo Verðandi."

Sun-sun shook her head at that, "One, that name isn't exactly the most endearing and two, it seems to be incredibly contrived."

Loth just shrugged, "I told you it was stupid, anyway that was the best of them so I'm not even going to mention the others."

By now they had gotten to the city and, just like last time the crowds, were parting before them though the people here seemed much chattier than the ones in Salzburg. The noise didn't bother them until one young man came out of a rather large and important looking building and began screaming at the top of his lungs about something or other, as soon as he was done everybody began cheering.

"What the heck is going on," asked Sun-sun, "some sort of holiday?"

Loth put his hand on her shoulder halting her progress, "Give me a minute, I've gotta sift through all this noise first."

"You speak their language?" said Sun-sun turning to her companion.

Loth smiled at the chance to show off, "I can speak every language, some of them dead, one of the side effects of traveling the world for as long as I have. Anyway it sounds like everyone's celebrating Napoleon's army bringing another country under his control."

"Who's Napoleon?" asked Sun-sun.

"Sounds like the emperor of France." answered Loth, "It seems like he's trying to conquer the world and so far it's working."

"Conquer the entire world," Sun-sun looked around the immediate area, seeing the celebrating people looking as though nothing could dampen their good cheer, "is that even possible?"

"I seriously doubt it," said Loth, "the world is just too big. From what I can understand he's making his way east which means he's going to try for Russia sooner or later and fighting them is an incredibly bad idea."

"Why," asked Sun-sun, looking back at Loth, "are they powerful?"

Loth began to walk again without a real destination in mind with Sun-sun at his side, "Not particularly, in fact I'd say their military power is rather pitiful compared to the French. No, the problem is the land itself is like a fortress." At the questioning look Sun-sun gave him Loth elaborated, "Russia is huge, think about the territory Halibel controls, now multiply that land by ten thousand."

"That's a lot of walking," said Sun-sun.

"And that's not the worst of it," Continued Loth, "remember when I told you about a land covered in snow, that's Russia. Granted it's not like that the whole year round but it is significantly colder than France. The army won't be able to cope."

"So what do you think will happen?" his green haired companion asked.

"Well," he began as he glanced around their surroundings, "they'll probably put up a token effort I suppose, but in the end I think the Russian people will take their food, burn their crops, and continue retreating until the French either starve or freeze. I think it's better this way though, doesn't really seem like a man's place to bring the whole world under his rule."

Sun-sun thought about that for a moment before asking, "Then who should rule?"

"God probably," Loth answered, "though I'm pretty sure the almighty doesn't give a damn about any of us otherwise Hueco Mundo wouldn't exist and we could all live out here under the sun."

"You're a strange one," said Sun-sun to which Loth just smiled and shrugged.

After that they wandered around for awhile, taking in the after dark sights; Sun-sun was even more interested in art than Loth so they spent several hours going from one gallery to another. At one point they accidentally wandered into the red light district causing Sun-sun's face to turn an interesting shade of red and Loth to immediately find the nearest exit while repeatedly saying that he had no idea that that was there.

When they both started to feel tired from the day's events they decided to find a place to sleep with Sun-sun saying they should sleep in real beds rather than a pile of lumpy pillows which Loth wholeheartedly agreed. Loth came up with the idea of staying in Napoleon's mansion figuring that it must have several spare rooms, after all it is a mansion. It turned out Loth was right; there were several unoccupied rooms that looked as though they hadn't seen any life in years.

Wishing Sun-sun a pleasant sleep Loth entered his room, finding it more expensively than anything he was used to with a luxurious carpet, large chest of drawers, and even a small fireplace next to the window. The bed was furnished with the finest silks with drapes all along the sides to keep the heat in. Throwing his cloths in the corner Loth climbed into bed finding it to be extremely comfortable. He was asleep almost immediately with visions of the green haired woman next door running through his head.

The next day Loth woke up feeling refreshed and ready to continue exploring the city. He got up, threw on his cloths, and made his way next door to called Sun-sun. She promptly told him she would be out in just a minute and to wait out there. Once she had herself presentable she opened the door to find her partner practically bouncing up and down from excitement.

"So," she said, "what are we doing today?"

"No idea," said Loth as they made their way out of the estate, "and that's half the fun."

Smiling Sun-sun decided that today she would take the lead which was how they ended up on the roof of the tallest building scouting out where everything was so they could hit the different places more efficiently than yesterday. After she had gotten a good idea of the layout Sun-sun took them down to a concert hall that happened to be playing a matinee dedicated to Mozart. They took seats on the aisle a little ways up from the middle and then just settled in to wait for the music. Fortunately it wasn't a full house so it didn't look odd for two of the seats to appear empty.

As the concert got underway Sun-sun became entranced by the melodies and before she knew she had leaned her head on Loth's shoulder. However, as soon as her mind caught up with her body she immediately sat up straight causing Loth to laugh a bit at her discomfort. When the last song was winding down the duo hurried out of the theater hoping to beat the rush and thereby avoid bumping into anyone and causing them to think the place was haunted or something.

Once outside Sun-sun said that she just wanted to walk around for a bit, after all they had been sitting for quite some time. Loth readily agreed saying there was a place he really wanted to take her and that the view from the roof was breath taking.

"Behold," he said as they rounded a corner, "I give you Notre Dame." Turning to Sun-sun he stopped for a moment just to savor the awe and wonder he saw in her eyes, "So what do you think," Loth said after as second.

"It's impressive, I'll give it that," she said.

Loth started to move towards the door, "Ah, but you haven't seen the inside yet."

The interior was even more beautiful than the outside with sculptures, stained glass windows, and strategically placed candles giving it the perfect atmosphere of being both humbling as well as awe inspiring. It took them over an hour to finally be finished with looking at everything and make their way to the roof. Once they got past the bells Loth and Sun-sun sat on one of the towers so that a few of Loth's tentacles could dangle of the edge with Sun-sun having her tail lay sideways.

After a few minutes of watching the city Loth said, "So, I never asked you, but where are you from originally?"

"In case you ever want to take me there?" Sun-sun said with a smile.

"Well, there's that," Loth turned to the green haired woman, "but really I just want to know more about you. Where you're from seemed a pretty good place to start."

Sun-sun got a faraway look in her eyes before speaking, "I don't remember much to be honest, just a large castle and fire."

"Nothing else?"

She shook her head before turning to her companion, "What about you?"

Loth took a moment to order his thought, "Hm, I suppose I should begin at the beginning, so to begin with I have no idea how old I am."

"Wait a moment," Sun-sun held up a sleeved hand, "I thought all Vaste Lordes could fully remember their human lives?"

"They can," said Loth, "my earliest memory is of when I was a child wandering the backstreets of London. I remember that I was looking for food and not any parents or siblings because, as far as I knew, they didn't exist."

"I'm sorry," said Sun-sun as she placed her left hand on his right.

"Don't worry about it," he said, "when I was alive I saw having a family as more of a commodity rather than the norm. After I died I just didn't really think about it. Anyway, as a child I found that I was very good at stealing, granted back then it was just food and the odd coin here and there, but I remember thinking I could use that later on in life."

"So you became a thief," said Sun-sun as she brushed a bit of hair that had been blown by the wind back into place.

"I think I always was one," he said with a nostalgic smile on his face, "I mean I had to survive somehow and the time period I lived in wasn't known for its charity towards the impoverished so I must have stolen in order to live."

Sun-sun supposed that made sense, although she thought he probably had help when he was baby. She figured if he was going to ignore it then she would as well.

"Eventually I got tired of living off of scraps and sleeping in alleyways so I decided to buy a legitimate home. As you can imagine procuring the money would take a bit more than picking pockets." here Loth got a faint smile on his face, "The first house I broke into had more gold statues than I'd ever seen. Unfortunately, it turned out the stuff I took was all gilded meaning though it was easy to fence it didn't give me nearly enough."

"After that I taught myself the ins and outs of, you know, how to pick locks, move about without being seen or heard, and most importantly how to pin the blame on someone else." Sun-sun raised her eyebrow at that to which Loth just said, "Hey, pinning a crime on someone else is the perfect way to keep the authorities off your trail."

He looked up at the sky before continuing, "Let's see, I think it took three more heists before I could afford the place I'd had my eye on for longer than I can remember. The four story house on Idol Lane abutted to an old decrepit church's bone house on one side and some back alley prostitution house on another. Idol Land was grimy and due to the nearby church and surrounding building at no time during the day did it ever get even a hint of sunlight; in short the perfect place for an up and coming thief to live. I even named the place, I called it my Idyll which at the time I just thought was a funny play on words, and it was only after death that I learned exactly how fitting the name was."

Before going any further Sun-sun decided to voice a nagging concern, "Prostitution house?"

"Yeah, I figured no self respecting lawman would poke around there," said Loth, "at least not if they were on duty."

"Did um … did you ever go over there?" she asked in a quiet voice.

Hearing the uncertainty in her voice Loth decided to give her the full story, "No, not really, though that isn't to say I didn't go anywhere else to satisfy that particular urge but it was a while before I had the money to even think about doing any of that."

"Oh," said Sun-sun as she took her hand away.

"Hey," he brought his hand to her chin so he could bring her gaze to meet his, "when I look back I don't see any of their faces, alright, right now your face is crystal clear and I promise it'll stay that way."

Sun-sun held her sleeve in front of her face in the hopes that Loth wouldn't see the blush that colored her cheeks, "So," she said once she had herself back under control, "after you got your Idyll what did you do?"

"I suppose what any good thief did," Loth said after he'd savored her discomfort, "rob from the rich and give to myself. Soon enough I'd stolen enough to potentially retire, though the only time that thought crossed my mind caused me to laugh my head off. I'd like to say I kept stealing from the rich as some sort of misguided way at getting back at the people at the top for not giving a damn about those that had to live off the dregs and would even take their taxes for themselves but, in all honesty I was just plain greedy, plus it was pretty fun."

"In my Idyll the first three floors were my living space; bottom floor kitchen and eating space it also had my bathroom, second floor was my sitting room though I used it primarily to plan my different thefts, third floor was the bedroom. It was the fourth floor that I was especially proud of, you see I only sold off the second rate stuff, flawed diamonds and the like, but the high end artifacts I kept in my trophy room. Over the years I'd probably amassed more wealth than anybody outside of the royal family yet I was content to stay in my Idyll."

"So what happened," asked Sun-sun, "you don't seem the type to die of old age?"

"Very true." He said, "On night as I was just finishing my supper guards burst into my home, threw me in chains, and dragged me to the dungeons where I was chained, beaten, and starved for at least a month; at least I think it was a month, time runs differently in captivity. For awhile I tried to figure out who could've known found me out, was it one of the prostitutes next door, a man working in the bone house. It was after my death that I came to the conclusion that I just slipped up."

"Hm," hummed Sun-sun as they sat and watched the sun begin to set, "so you never knew your parents?"

"Nope"

"Then how did you get your name?"

"Well," he began, "I'm Danish so I knew a bit of what is now known as Norse mythology from listening to one old man who used to tell all the poor Danish kids stories of gods and warriors. My favorites were the stories of Lopt or as he's known today Loki so I decided that would be my name. Unfortunately I couldn't properly pronounce it and it kept coming out Loth, same with my last name, I originally wanted Echo."

"Your whole life was one big accident," muttered Sun-sun before realizing that she'd said that aloud. Hoping she hadn't offended him she quickly turned with an apology on her lips. However, what she saw took her by surprise.

"Zehahaha," he laughed, "Yeah I suppose it was."

They sat on top of Notre Dame, watching the sun as it made its way below the edge of the horizon. As night fell Loth helped Sun-sun up, saying that while in town he'd heard of a place he'd like to take her.

The building was pretty big with a domed roof that Loth was able to jimmy open to allow them entrance and replace the glass without anyone noticing. When they got down to the floor Sun-sun was a bit nervous when she saw it was a very classy ball with ever woman wearing expensive jewelry and the men all in expensive formal clothing and the ball was even complete with a string orchestra.

"Loth ... um why are we here?" she asked while looking around.

Loth turned to her with a smile, "While we were walking through town I heard about this little party that was happening and I thought it would be nice to go."

"I figured that much out but what exactly are we going to do here?" Sun-sun asked, "It's not like anyone can see us."

Loth took her arm and led her towards the dancers, "I was hoping you would be up for a dance."

Sun-sun abruptly stopped upon hearing that, "Whoa, I'm not so sure that's a good idea."

"Oh," said Loth turning to her, "why not?"

She looked down at herself and then at him, "Because we're not exactly suited for that sort of thing."

"Nonsense," said Loth, "I've got enough legs for the both of us."

He started to lead her back to the dance floor and, after a bit more persuasion, she complied with his request. Though it was a bit harder to move through the crowd without anybody running into them they eventually found a spot without any dancers in the immediate area. However, now that they were there Sun-sun was able to look around at how the other women were dancing and instantly wanted to back out.

"I really don't think this will work out," she said.

"Why not?" said Loth, "You just put your hand in mine then your other one on my shoulder while I guide you with a hand on your back. I even promise to keep it there."

"That's the problem," Sun-sun raised her right arm, "I don't have a hand to hold."

She let the sleeve drop to revel that instead of a hand Sun-sun had a white snake for an arm, at least to her elbow, with red eyes and scales that were the same color as the ones on her tail. She dropped her eyes to the floor hoping to miss the look of disgust that Loth surely had on his face.

Loth took a moment to get over his surprise before he said anything, "Oh, that's how you took out those hollows."

Sun-sun was rendered speechless for a moment, "You're not at all repulsed by this?" she moved her snake arm back and forth.

"Not really," he shrugged, "I don't know if I've told you this before but you're beautiful, from your hair and your eyes to your scales and your tail, even this," he reached out and took the head of the snake, holding it as though holding her hand, "I can find no fault in."

The green haired woman felt a warmth well up in her chest and a smile appear on her face, she brought her left arm up and pulled back the sleeve to revel a normal looking hand, which she placed on Loth's shoulder. He smiled down at her as he placed his on the small of her back and they began to move with the music.

They were unrefined, neither of them having danced before, not to mention the lack of legs, but it didn't matter both were happy. At first Sun-sun told herself it would only be for this song and at the end of each song she'd again make and break that promise. Loth was simply content to be holding the woman of his dreams in his arms. As the night wore on Sun-sun took her snake arm from his hand and brought up behind his neck, holding it with her other hand. Loth, for his part, laced his fingers together at the small of her back, in the process of doing so he accidentally strayed lower than he should have but keeping to his word he rectified his mistake.

As they stopped dancing and began to sway to the music she pressed her cheek against his chest just to be closer to him. Slightly rubbing her cheek against his chest she noticed something, "What you're wearing is a bit scratchy."

"Yeah," he murmured absently, "it also doesn't breathe well, wish I had something a little more comfortable."

"And here I thought you were some sort of exhibitionist," she said with a smile.

"No," he said, he closed his eyes and leaned his head on top of hers, "I just hate being uncomfortable."

They continued to move together; even after the ball ended and everybody left they could still hear the music in their hearts.

"I wish we could stay like this forever," sighed Sun-sun.

"So do I," Loth held her just a bit tighter.

A/N For those of you wondering Sun-sun died at Isa Nagashima when Nobunaga burnt a large fortress housing rebels to the ground, killing over twenty thousand people. I don't know what she was doing there and I probably won't elaborate on it.


	9. I and Love and You

A/N Crap, I'd planned on them having a sex scene but I forgot that at this point neither of them have legs. I suppose I could cancel that idea but then where's the fun in that.** If anyone is offended by a part snake woman and part octopus man expressing their love (graphically) please skim the chapter as there is a plot**. Also you may have noticed that the last chapter's title was also the title of a song, well I'm gonna try and do that for the rest of the chapters (don't worry the title will fit the chapter). So if you think "hey that title seems familiar" don't write me or anything. An attempt to make myself seem clever or just plain laziness, you decide. Well, one of those and three of my chapters have the word life in them and I dislike repetition.

**I and Love and You**

It was a wonderful week, spent exploring the city, watching street performers, they even found a few more parties to dance at, though none measured up to that first one. They watched every sunset sitting on the top of Notre Dame and after enjoying the night life they would return to their rooms, which the maids still hadn't noticed were being used, in the mansion.

After they had exhausted every attraction the city held for them they decided to move on. This time Sun-sun opted to continue traveling without returning to Hueco Mundo so long as they went somewhere where nature was more dominant than man. Taking a moment to think about the different possibilities Loth eventually settled on one and they soon set out for their destination. They came out on a worn path in the middle of a dense jungle, the noontime sun glistening through the leaves.

"So where are we now?" asked Sun-sun as Loth picked a direction he hoped would lead them out of the jungle.

"Thailand," he said as he smelled the air, "I think were near the ocean, can you smell that, smells like salt water."

"Wait, what do you mean "you think" you chose this place didn't you?" she asked as she looked at their surroundings.

"Well sort of," Loth said with a smile and a sidelong glance at the green haired woman, "the specifics of our destination was Thailand and away from any major cities so really, we could've ended up just about anywhere in the country."

Sun-sun shook her head at his antics as they continued on their way. As they made their way down the path she was in awe of the size and variety of the plant life having only the quartz trees as her frame of reference. She would stop periodically to inspect some of the flora and when they saw a king cobra lying on one of the lower branches of a tree she, without any hesitation, went over and actually picked it up.

Loth was enjoying the looks of wonder on her face as she scrutinized ever thing until she picked up the poisonous snake. Of course he knew that the thing's poison couldn't possibly be fatal to a hollow of Sun-sun's level but still, if that snake even attempted to hurt her he'd gut it. Keeping a bemused grin on his face he moved towards his companion but was surprised when she turned to look at him with a smile on her face and the snake held securely in her hand; the snake, for its part, seemed content to remain wrapped around her arm.

She seemed to be fascinated with the cobra's hood and was running her fingers up and down the back of its head to coax it to flex those muscles and every time it did Sun-sun's eyes would light up. Loth for his part was just enjoying the happiness that seemed to radiate from the green haired woman as she played with the reptile. Eventually the snake began to get antsy and so Sun-sun set it back on the branch she'd found him on, after she made sure that the cobra wouldn't fall she turned back to Loth and they continued on their way.

After several more stops to study the local flora and fauna they eventually came to the end of the path which, it turned out, led to a small fishing village.

"Huh," said Loth as they stopped several feet from a sign that gave the name of the village, "I suppose we went the wrong way. Oh well, it's not that big so we shouldn't be bothered."

"Do you know where we are now?" asked Sun-sun.

Loth took a moment to scrutinize the town and surrounding area before shaking his head, "No, there aren't any landmarks that give this place away."

His green haired companion pointed to the sign right in front of them, "What about that?"

"Um … can you read it?" he asked as he shifted his gaze from the sign to his companion. Seeing the raised eyebrow she was giving him he continued, "I just thought you might understand the language and then you would at least know the general area you're from."

She looked back at the sign before shaking her head, "No, the writing isn't familiar." Turning back to Loth she noticed that he was deliberately focusing on anything other than her or the sign, "Can you read it for me?"

"Uh … sure it ah says … You are entering … no it's um Welcome to," seeing the disbelief written across Sun-sun's face Loth decided to quit while he was behind, "Okay, I'm about to tell you something that nobody else knows and I need you to promise that this will stay between you and me alright."

"Sure," she said, "I promise your secret is safe with me."

He took a moment to try and figure out how he was going to go about telling the woman he loved that he had an enormous short coming. Deciding not to gloze over the truth Loth just came out and said it, "I can't read."

Sun-sun gave him a questioning look, "You can't read the Thai language?"

"No, I can't read any language." Loth looked down at the ground and let out a sigh, "I never learned when I was alive and it was centuries before I actually cared. I think either I've got a mental block or too much time passed and I just can't learn."

"But didn't you say you knew just about every language in the world?" Sun-sun looked back at the sign.

"I said I speak every language, I know that sounds like it's implied that I can read all of them and yes that's what I was going for. I know I'm not the strongest out there and I'll freely admit that but I just didn't want you to think of me as some sort of idiot." Loth refused to meet her eyes after he said that.

Sun-sun reached out for his shoulder and slowly turned him to face her, "Hey look at me," once his eyes met hers she continued, "I will never think any less of you especially for something you have no control over. After everything you've shown me and even after you saw this," she rolled up her right sleeve so the snake head was showing, "you saw this part of me and still called me beautiful, no one's ever done that before."

Listing to Sun-sun's acceptance, praise, and seeing the understanding in her eyes had Loth unconsciously moving his head closer to her, if she noticed she didn't let on in fact her eyes began to close as he got closer. When his lips finally met hers it was like the floodgates for their pent up desires were opening and Loth conveyed all the gratitude he felt not just for what she had just said but also for just being there with him. She in turn brought her hand up to caress Loth's cheek and pressed herself up to him, feeling a heat begin to well up in her stomach. Both slowly closed their eyes as they simply lost themselves in the feelings of ecstasy.

After a moment or two Loth ran his tongue across her teeth asking for permission to enter to which she eagerly accepted. He ran his hands down her back feeling every bump of her spine through her dress while wishing there was nothing keeping him from feeling her body pressed up against his chest. However, the moment his hands gripped her ass and pulled her pelvis towards him it was as though a switch was thrown inside of Sun-sun's head and she pulled away, placing her hand on Loth's chest to help ground herself in reality. Loth was still riding the waves of pleasure and so it took him a moment to come back and realize that she had backed off.

"Sorry," said Sun-sun as took a few steps back, "I didn't uh … I mean um should we go into town or what?"

Loth was a bit disappointed with the abrupt halt but hid it behind a bemused smirk, "Naw we've seen enough towns for now, I'm thinking we'll go along the beach for awhile, just take in the sights you know."

They walked until the village was well out of sight, both thinking about what had transpired back there, both wishing it had gone on longer, one hoping he hadn't overstepped his bounds, the other hoping she hadn't insulted him by drawing away. They stopped at the suggestion of Loth who said here was a good enough spot. The beach stretched out towards the horizon to their right and bent around about a hundred feet to their left making it seem as though they stood on a corner of the world. A few small islands dotted the sea, each with sandy beaches and a bit of green further inland. Behind the duo the jungle rose like an untamed green behemoth.

"I was thinking," said Loth, "since we're here we could go for a swim, see the aquatic wildlife, maybe go out to one of those islands, and just have some fun."

Sun-sun thought that sounded nice, until Loth began to remove his clothing, "Um I think I'll just stay here." She said as Loth approached the water.

"Suit yourself," he called back keeping the disappointment from his voice. Once he was in the water however he completely forgot about everything but the sea. Diving down to the bottom Loth just lay on the sand feeling the current flow over him and watching the different schools of brightly colored fish swim about the coral. After a minute or two he shot up to the surface, but when he just below the area where water turned to air quickly changed course, skimming just below the water with his face up towards the sun and his arms down at his sides. Though he was under water the speed at which he traveled caused a trench to form in the water which held for a moment or two before the it caved in on itself. After a few minutes of rocketing back and forth Loth began travel in a figure eight, soon enough he created two whirlpools. After they were able to run on their own he would slingshot himself into the air from one to the other.

Sun-sun was enjoying watching Loth's but still couldn't help but feel a little left out. After he created a third whirlpool she couldn't help herself. Leaving her dress on she quickly made her way into the water, moving through it with a surprising amount of grace and ease for someone who had never swam before. She was almost on top of him before Loth noticed she was there. Smiling she made her way into the artificial current, although with a little more difficulty than Loth, and began to build up speed. Unfortunately her long hair kept obscuring her vision giving her only glimpses of her surroundings.

"Ah well," she thought, "either way I'll land in water."

After she felt she had built up enough speed, and when her lungs began to burn, Sun-sun made her way closer to the center of the whirlpool and shot herself into the air. It turned out that she was going to land far to the left of the second whirlpool. Loth, who had been watching the whole time behind the second whirlpool, wondered whether he should catch her or just let her hit the water. As she started her decent he decided to catch her partially to see the look on her face but mostly just to feel her in his arms again.

He made it to her landing spot just in time to have the green haired woman fall on him, plunging them both underwater. When they came up Sun-sun's hair was plastered to both of their heads, once she had peeled it away and they were both able to get a good look at each other they burst out laughing.

Sun-sun pointed at Loth's head, "Even after all that your hair's still sticking up."

"Take a look at yours," he said, "it's like you're sitting in a circle of dense algae."

Once they got rid of their giggles Sun-sun tilted her head in a clear indication that she wanted to try again. It took several more tries but eventually she was able to slingshot from one pool to the next with ease. An hour went by before Sun-sun decided she'd done enough swimming for one day and made for the nearest spot of dry land which just so happened to be one of the islands. She chose to sit on an incline of pure rock rather than sand and allowed her tail to lie in the water up to where the middle of her calves would be. Loth popped out of the water just in front of her as she was in the middle of wringing the water out of her hair.

"God you're beautiful," he said as he watched her comb her fingers through the no longer completely saturated hair.

Sun-sun blushed and suddenly found wringing the water out of her sleeves to be very interesting. Loth slowly climbed up to sit next to her, "Really you are," this caused her to look over at him, seeing the love in his eyes caused her to turn an even darker shade of crimson and begin to turn away, "and I love you."

That simple statement caused her to stop and turn back; this time she was the one that initiated the kiss. It was searing and full of passion and when she opened her mouth to grant access to his prodding tongue he immediately delved in. As she lay on her back Loth moved his hands from her sides down to her hips, where he started to pull up the dress.

"Wait," Sun-sun breathed as she put her hands on his, "I haven't ever um done this before."

"I haven't had sex since I died so all of this will be new for me," Loth murmured into her ear before he got back to nipping at her neck. Sun-sun ran her hand up and down his back as she let herself drift in the pleasure his mouth was giving.

Loth kept his palms flat against her scales at the bottom of her dress and began to draw it and his hands upwards. As he went he found that her tail only went up mid thigh, the rest of her was pure woman. He trailed one hand down her emerald curls to rub up and down her slit as his other continued to remove her clothing. After relinquishing the hold his lips had on her neck for a moment to get her dress off Loth took a second to gaze at her naked body. She was lithe with petite breasts topped with slowly hardening nipples, a toned abdomen leading down to a small nest of curls atop her increasingly moistening pussy. Her right arm was normal until it reached halfway between her shoulder and elbow at which point it turned into a snake.

As Loth began to kiss along her jaw line he inserted a finger into her and began to pump it in and out causing Sun-sun to arch her back and gasp from the pleasure, accentuating her breasts. Loth began to make his way down her body, planting open mouth kisses until he made it to the valley between her breasts; he then kissed around her left nipple steadily getting closer and closer until he latched on to the nub. He sucked and teased her with his mouth while his free hand played with its neglected twin, kneading it while feeling her hard nipple poke into the palm of his hand.

Sun-sun was thrusting her hips every time Loth would shove his finger in causing little mewing sounds to escape her mouth; when he inserted a second finger into her she had to bite her lip to keep from screaming. After awhile Loth abandoned her breasts and continued to make his way down her body until his face was directly in front of her pussy. Keeping his fingers inside of her he leaned forward and began to tease her clit out its hiding spot with his tongue. Sun-sun arched her back in an attempt to give him easier access; Loth used his free hand to grab her ass so he could crush her womanhood against his face and fingers.

By now her clit was swollen and extremely sensitive to his oral ministration causing her to shake with every flick of her lover's tongue. Extracting his fingers from her he quickly replaced them with his tongue, sliding it into her as far as he could before bringing it back out just to thrust back in. Over and over he did this while rubbing her clit with his thumb and lapping up every drop of her essence that escaped her body. She was moaning uncontrollably by this point and after a particularly hard thrust of her partner's tongue she felt her release boil over into his mouth and part of his face.

Collapsing on the ground she took a moment to enjoy the feeling of release, afterwards Sun-sun wrapped her snake arm around her man's neck and dragged his face up to her, basically forcing his lips to meet hers. Not at all minding the taste of herself she delved her tongue into his mouth.

After a minute of getting herself back under control Sun-sun pulled him back from her mouth, "Please," she breathed, "I need you, now."

Loth smiled down at her before going back in, as he did so he spread his tentacles out and brought the front two up to caress her shoulder blades revealing beneath the area where the two connected the only part of him below the waist that was human. Fully erect and hard as a rock he ran the tip of his head up and down her slit causing her to moan into his mouth.

Releasing his neck Sun-sun grabbed one of his shoulders with her hand and pressed the bottom of her snake head to the other signaling him that she was ready. Loth slowly pressed himself inside of her, the lack of legs making it easy, savoring how she tightened around him, how she seemed to suck him in. The lack of a hymen due to numerous battles insured that the pleasure Sun-sun was feeling while being filled was not interrupted by the tearing of that part of her.

Once he was fully embedded in her Loth took a moment to help her get used to his intrusion. When she felt she was ready to continue Sun-sun ground herself into him. Loth retracted his penis until only the head remained before thrusting back in all the way up to the hilt. Over and over he'd pull out and slam back in, each time causing Sun-sun to gasp and moan. It took them a while to get into synch with each other but when they did both were seeing stars with every push.

After one particularly hard thrust Loth hit an incredibly sensitive spot causing Sun-sun to dig her nails into his back and actually bite him in the shoulder with her snake head.

"Oh, I'm … unh … sorry … ah more … are you … uh … al … alright?" she moaned as that same spot was hit over and over again without stopping.

"Yeah I'm …hah … fine. I can … god your hot … break poison's like … ah … that in my … my sleep," he said as he tried to stave off his release, determined to cum with her.

She was quickly approaching her orgasm, tightening around him even further and unable to form a coherent thought. When Loth couldn't take it anymore he buried himself as far into Sun-sun as he could and shot his seed into her. This brought her over the edge as well and she cried out as her body was filled with the most exquisite pleasure while she squeezed Loth's member so tight in the back of his mind he thought if he tried to pull out it would break off. Both held each other as they rode out the tremors that rocketed up and down their bodies.

Eventually they got themselves back under control and Loth extracted himself from his love causing her to let out a contented sigh. Rather than ruin the moment both just lay next to each other in silence, Loth with his arm around Sun-sun as she rested her head on his chest, simply enjoying each other's presence.

"I suppose we should be getting back," said Sun-sun as she extracted herself, with some difficulty, from Loth's embrace and began to look for her dress. As she slipped hit on she noticed that Loth hadn't made a move to get up, "Aren't you going to get dressed?"

"My stuff's all the way over there," he pointed to the mainland's shore in the distance, "I like being here, with you. That and I figure this is a good enough excuse to "accidently" lose that scratchy thing."

"Suit yourself," she said as she opened the portal that would take them back to Hueco Mundo. Loth quickly hurried after her. They ended up coming out on the first floor of Halibel's tower just outside of the meeting room, currently empty.

Before going back to their rooms Loth turned to his green haired love, "Thank you," at her questioning look he continued, "for not thinking any less of me even though I can't read."

"Ha, you can't read," a voice said from around a corner, "did you hear that Mila Rose, the philosopher's illiterate?" Apache appeared from around the corner followed shortly by Mila Rose who found the whole situation completely hilarious and was laughing her head off.

"Aww fuck." Loth muttered before raising his voice and filling it was sarcasm to be heard by all in the hallway, "Well with you two in on it what's the point in keeping quiet. Hey everybody," he cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, "I can't read a damn word!"

"Huh," said a familiar voice from the entrance, "after all your talk I never would have guessed."

Everyone turned to see Stark and Lilinette standing in the doorway.

Loth was dumbfounded for a second by just how awful his luck was in this situation, "Great timing as usual Stark, the worst part of this whole thing is I can't legitimately blame anybody but myself for this. On the bright side I'm still blaming Yamamoto just cause."

"That's rather petty of you." Stark finally noticed the change in Loth, "What happened to the clothes I gave you?"

Before answering Loth saw Sun-sun cover her face out of the corner of his eye, "We were in Paris and apparently their emperor, Napoleon, conquered another country. Anyway to make a long story short a few of the revelers got a little too much alcohol into them and were cavorting around by us and ran into me, spilling their drinks all over the fine clothing you so generously gave me."

Stark shrugged, "Anyway, you're probably wondering what I'm doing back here so soon. Well, Lilinette has apparently taken a liking to you and wanted to make sure you hadn't forgotten about her."

Loth looked down at Lilinette, "Tell you what, I kind of like it here so this'll be my new home from now on but I don't see why that means I can't visit every now and then, sound alright." Stark's eternal companion nodded.

With that they all went their separate ways, Apache and Mila Rose went off to no doubt spread the news that they had a permanent guest, Stark went up the stairs to see Halibel, and Loth went with Sun-sun off to one of their rooms followed by Lilinette who would spoil their plans.

A/N If anybody wants another sex scene just tell me because though they will do it again I wasn't planning on going into so much detail a second time. If you tell me yes, you want another one it'll be like adult ff stuff.

Next time: the shit goes fan side.


	10. Personal Jesus

Disclaimer: The character known as Loth Elcho does not represent this author religious or theological view, he does however represent this author's views on Quincy.

They piss me off.

**Personal Jesus**

_September 5__th__, 1870 Hueco Mundo_

Everything had turned out pretty well all things considered, granted when Loth told Halibel he would be sticking around and why she was less than pleased. However, once Sun-sun approached her and explained that Loth wasn't trying to take her away and that the two of them loved each other Halibel begrudgingly accepted him as a friend of her large family; though she never made the jump to actually seeing him as a son in law.

They only told Halibel the nature of their relationship, Lilinette made her presence known before either of them were in a compromising position, both feeling that they could do without the added attention. The real world is where they spent most of their time together but every now and again they would meet in each other's rooms, typically choosing Sun-sun's room as it actually had a bit of color in it thanks to the flowers Loth gave her that, for some reason, would not whither nor die.

This worked for a few years until one day as he was in the middle of leaving Sun-sun's room, after having spent the night there, he immediately ran into Apache and Mila Rose. The trio just stared at each other for a moment before Loth shut the door in their faces, turned around, and made his way to her balcony saying he'd rather climb down the side of the tower than suffer their questioning and eventual harassment.

As he plummeted to the ground several feet away from the tower Loth realized that getting impatient and trying to run down the side of a building when your lower body isn't made for speed is not what one would call a wise thing to do. As the ground rushed up to meet him these musings were brought to an abrupt halt as Loth prepared himself for the pain that was to come once he stopped falling.

Loth was able to avoid the duo for a few days thanks to his natural hollow and human abilities as well as simple dumb luck. Sun-sun however was not so lucky, it seemed everywhere she went Apache and Mila Rose would find her and bombard her with questions and teasing. Of course a clever word here and there sent the two into a rage and they would forget about their original intentions for awhile but they would keep coming back.

Eventually they were somehow able to corner both Loth and Sun-sun together and began to pester the hell out of the couple. Sun-sun was doing her best to keep her temper under control while Loth just stood there with a faraway look in his eyes staring off into space somewhere over Apache's left shoulder. This went on for awhile until Mila Rose said what a coward he was for just standing there and taking this sort of verbal abuse, that at least Sun-sun would fight back.

Loth's eyes finally focused, he simply shrugged and said if this was how the duo wanted to relieve their pent up tension then that was fine with him and that he supposed doing this would be attractive since up until now they've only been able to get rid of it using their right hands. The group went dead silent after that, both Mila Rose and Apache had their mouths hanging open. Loth just looked at them for a moment before turning to Sun-sun, who was hiding her grin behind her sleeve, and saying that he didn't spend a lot of time with them so maybe they're left handed. At that Sun-sun grabbed his wrist while covering the grin that threatened to split her face and dragged him out the door and around the corner.

When they got there both of them burst out laughing not only at what Loth had said but that he had delivered it completely straight faced. Mila Rose and Apache's reactions had also been, in a word, priceless. After that Apache and Mila Rose stopped going out of their way to bother them, that isn't to say that the pestering stopped just that it was significantly decreased.

The next time Barragan's army attacked Sun-sun actually invited Loth to stand with her in battle, which was convenient as he was planning on helping out anyway. They made a good team; she would dart here and there like a white and green arrow while he fired off several ceros at once, blowing apart large chunks of the opposing army while killing any stragglers with his crushing reiatsu. They fought so well that the battle only lasted two or three hours instead of the usual half day before Barragan called a retreat. The two celebrated the victory the usual way by heading back to one of their rooms for a couple hours.

Loth made good on his word to visit Stark and Lilinette every now and again, staying a few days at a time. It was on his way back from one of these trips that he made a slight detour as he felt a disturbance on the edge of the border of Halibel's territory. What he found caused him to, for once, be left completely speechless.

There were two people just idling out in the open as though waiting for something or someone. The one standing off to the side was wearing a large white cloak that went down to his ankels with ruffles at the top. It was impossible to make out the man's face due to the mask he wore, though from the shape of it Loth could tell that the bone structure for the man's head was not normal. However, it was not this man who stunned him into silence but the one who stood but a few paces away.

He was a shinigame which was surprising enough in and of itself but what's more he displayed neither fear nor hostility towards either Loth or Hueco Mundo and in fact exuded such a strong sense of calm Loth couldn't help but not think of the man as a threat in anyway. The man wore a lieutenant's badge that, thanks to Loth's extended dealings with the shinigame, identified him as a member of the fifth division. His brown wavy hair fell about his head in sharp contrast to his black rimmed glasses giving him an intellectual yet humble look.

As he stepped forward he made no move towards his zanpactou, further solidifying his peaceful aura. When he was within reach of Loth's tentacles he stopped and began speaking, "I apologize if my presence alarmed you but I knew of no other way to make contact, Loth Elcho. Oh, but it seems I have you at a disadvantage my name is Aizen Sosuke, shinigame and lieutenant of the fifth division," here he turned back to his associate before again facing Loth, "and this is my subordinate Aaroniero Arruruerie."

Here Loth finally found his voice, "I don't mean to be rude lieutenant Aizen but shinigame don't come to Hueco Mundo and I mean ever and sense you seem to have come here willingly I just have to ask, why are you hear and for that matter how do you know my name?"

"Ah, that's a rather interesting story, but please there's no need to stand on ceremony," Aizen gestured to two rather large half sunken flat rocks not that far away, "if you would." Once they had seated themselves comfortably Aizen began his tale, "You're actually rather famous in the Seireitei, did you know?"

Loth just shrugged at that, "Typically when I run into a shinigame it's some non seated officer who has no idea who or what I am, or it's the captain commander himself."

"No, the lower ranking shinigame wouldn't know of you but to those seated officers you're well known, in fact there's even a legend about your type of hollow." Aizen explained, "They say that if ten Vaste Lordes come together it will herald the end of the Seireitei."

"I'm really not that strong compared to a few others I know," said Loth.

"I believe the legend refers to the amount of intelligence you gain, more than your power. You see no matter how strong an organism is if it does not have any higher intelligence the creature will be easily trapped, lured away, or simply blindsided and killed. You however can make coordinated attacks, striking from the shadows and then returning to this safe haven." Aizen gestured to the land around them.

"And I suppose you decided that for the good of soul society you would come and end the threat," yet even after he said that Loth made no move to rise; nor did Aizen.

"No, I came here today to ask for your help."

Loth couldn't hide the look of shock after hearing that, "Help? You, a shinigame, need the help of a hollow you yourself said represented one of the most dangerous threats to the Seireitei; with what exactly?"

Aizen leaned back and seemed to organize his thoughts for a moment before speaking, "Every time you're found in the human world the shinigame always assume you're just there to slaughter the innocent yet in every case you have never laid a hand on a living soul, what's more the places you were found were also rather intriguing. In most of them you came to a city in which the ruling class held nearly all the wealth while the poor struggle to survive."

Here Aizen leaned forward, "This led me to question why you would go there if not to feed, the answer because you love the world yet wish for the people to live as equals, am I correct?" Loth nodded, slightly impressed with the man's deductive powers.

"Did you know that Soul Society has a monarch?" Loth shook his head, "He is the king of all of Soul Society and, in a way, acts as the god of earth given the tremendous power he could wield through the Gotei thirteen and the council of forty-six. Yet he remains complacent, content to allow the cycle of violence and death to continue, to allow wars to continue on earth when it would be so easy for the shinigame to stop them, you and your brothers and sisters are forced to exist in this wasteland while the Spirit king remains safe in his castle above and beyond any and all laws. I find that sort of negligence criminal. If I were to assume the throne things would be different; think of how things could change under a man who is not simply content with wasting away in some opulent palace."

Loth looked down at the sands at his feet taking a moment to let that all sink in, "I always thought that God did not care one bit about the rest of the world and now hearing it from someone who knows, well, it's all a bit much." Looking at the man seated across from him Loth asked, "So if I were to help you achieve this divine position you speak of how do I know I haven't traded one dictator for another?"

Aizen stood and moved a few paces to the side, giving Loth a bit of room but still within striking distance of his tentacles, "I'm sure you've seen many different zanpactou, from the incomparable power of the Captain Commander, to the singular functionality of the battle types," here Aizen drew his sword, "but my zanpactou, Kyōka Suigetsu, is a bit different from all of those. With it I can make anyone see, hear, smell, feel, and taste exactly what I want them to. Now Loth Elcho, let me show you my dream. Shatter."

Immediately Loth's whole world was changed, where there was once only sand now grass sprouted, where only a black sky stood and a crescent moon hung but a moment ago now a blue sky dotted here and there with white clouds spread out to the horizon as the sun shined down from the heavens. No sooner had this image appeared then it was swept away to be replaced with a large city filled with carriages going this way and that. That was quickly replaced with a small rural village situated on an island. Slowly, as each location would change, black shapes began to appear and focus into shinigami though they acted like no shinigame Loth had ever seen.

No longer did they indiscriminately kill hollows while completely ignoring the collateral damage done to the living, now they acted as invisible guardians to the material world, using their power to move mass quantities of food to feed the starving and decommission war machines. They had changed their handling of hollows as well; they were now strategically spread out across the world so that every square inch was being monitored allowing no hollow to consume a human soul. Though they still purified the ones that had absolutely no intelligence, the shinigame now acted more as a police force rather than a death squad by allowing those hollows with intelligence to roam the human world as they pleased provided they did not try to upset the balance.

At one moment Stark came into focus, sleeping under a tree while Lilinette played in the branches. Seconds after Loth's brain had processed that then the scene changed to a sandy beach at sunset; a woman could be seen swimming several dozen feet out. Back and forth she would swim until she had expended the last of her energy and made her way to shore. Once she was close enough inland that she could walk Loth saw that it was Halibel and once again she was wearing absolutely nothing forcing Loth to immediately avert his eyes until the scene changed yet again.

On and on this went, with people he knew being replaced with out of focus faceless men and women in white. They appeared in all corners of his field of vision one after another only to disappear when the scene changed and though he could not see the expressions on their faces Loth could feel the peace and contentment that radiated off of them as they went about their business. There was one person who did not fade away with every change of location. It started out as a dot of white located in the center of his vision but with every place Loth was transported to it would get bigger and bigger as though it were coming closer.

Faster and faster the scenes would change and the white creature continued to grow until one moment the form was unrecognizable the next he could see her clear as day. Sun-sun was turned to the side and was wearing that smile he loved so much, that smile she got whenever they were together in the real world enjoying each other's company. Loth was enjoying just watching the woman he loved stare off into the distance when suddenly she turned to look at him, her eyes lighting up as her smile got bigger. She tenderly reached out her hand to him, silently asking him to join her in this paradise. Without a moment's hesitation Loth went to join her but the moment his hand touched hers the illusion shattered and he was back in the wasteland.

Aizen stood where he was before his illusion was cast and watched Loth come out of the effects of his zanpactou; when he felt enough time had passed he asked, "Will you walk with me Loth Elcho, will you help me make this dream a reality?"

Immediately Loth stood and walked towards the shinigame until he was an arm's length away, Loth then got down with his palms in the sand and bowed his head.

"Yes my lord."

A/N I'll let you decide how much of what Aizen said was true.


	11. Together we will live forever

**Together we will live forever**

"I'm grateful for your cooperation Loth, truly I am," said Aizen once Loth had risen to his full height again, "as the first Vaste Lorde to join with us you give me hope that more will soon follow."

"I apologize my lord but I don't think it will be quite as easy to convince them to join us," said Loth, "in this world might makes right and with just the three of us it'll be difficult to prove that we hold some tremendous power; not only that but to a normal hollow following a shinigame will be difficult enough but to follow one who isn't even a captain will be nigh impossible."

Aizen smiled at that, "Don't worry, I'll have that taken care of soon enough but I believe you can help by telling your acquaintances about me and what I'm trying to achieve. I do have one more subordinate, though I felt that he would be of more use keeping an eye on the shinigame as it were. The man's name is Kaname Tousen; I'll introduce you to him later."

"So aside from spreading the word what else will I be doing?" asked Loth.

"There is a forest five kilometers west of the Seireitei, in that forest is a hill with only a single dead tree at the top," explained Aizen, "in three days time, at midday, I'd like you to meet me and Tousen so we can discuss exactly what I will need you to do."

"Alright, until then," said Loth as Aizen made his way to Aaroniero who open a doorway back into Soul Society. As the rift closed Loth made his way to Halibel's tower, mentally going over what he was going to say once he got their and how exactly he would keep her from killing him once she learned that he had allowed a shinigame to walk in this world without putting up even a token amount of resistance.

When he was through the doors Loth slipped into his usual routine of allowing his reiatsu to seep out, announcing his return to Halibel, Sun-sun and the rest while making his way up the stairs. When he was at the halfway point between the entrance and Halibel's personal chambers he met up with Sun-sun as he turned a corner leading to the next flight of stairs.

"Ah, you're back," she said before sharing a quick kiss. "So did you have a good time over at Stark's?"

"Yeah, it was pretty typical, um, listen you know I'd love to stay and spend time with you but I really need to speak with Halibel, it's sorta urgent," Loth began to make his way around the green haired woman.

"Wait," Sun-sun caught his elbow and looked into his eyes, "did something bad happen; you've never acted like this before?"

"No, no, something good happened, great actually, it's just if someone else tells Halibel about it she'll be really angry," he went back to making his way up to the top floor.

Sun-sun fell into step beside him, "Angry as in Moscow angry or angry like the time she caught us on the roof?"

"Moscow, maybe even worse," Loth shuddered at that particular memory.

"I fail to see how something that could make her that mad would be good."

"It's complicated."

When they reached the top floor Loth took a moment to compose himself before knocking on Halibel's door. When he was let in he saw that her room was much as it was all those years ago, same bed, same table, same dark skinned woman sitting at said table looking mildly surprised at seeing him enter her room.

"Loth, now this is a surprise," she said, "usually I only see you when we're having our meeting or walking through the halls. So, what brings you here today?"

"Well," began Loth after he took a seat across from the dark skinned woman while Sun-sun sat in between the two, "you know about my visits to Stark right?" at a nod of the head from Halibel Loth continued, "Anyway, and don't get mad, I was making my way back here and had just crossed over into your territory when I met a man, well two men though the other one didn't really say anything and don't look at me like that Sun-sun, you know I don't swing that way. Anyway the guy happened to be a shinigame.

Halibel cut in there, "This is an interesting turn of events, though I'd say it's more a cause for worry than anger. If the shinigame have perfected a way to travel to Hueco Mundo then we may have a bigger threat to worry about than Barragan and his army; though I hope that with their two scouts killed the soul reapers will be discouraged from attempting another invasion of our home."

"Yeah, you don't really need to worry about the Seireitei coming here," Loth unconsciously leaned back in his seat, giving himself a bit more distance between him and the woman he was facing, "since it was only one shinigame working with a hollow."

"A hollow working with a shinigame, now that is cause for some concern," said Halibel.

"Actually I don't think it is," said Loth as he mentally braced himself for her inevitable outburst, "See while he was here rather than trying to kill the man I spoke with him instead and he-"

"Wait a moment," Halibel held up a hand as her face becoming hard and intimidating, "let me get this straight. You come into my realm, see a shinigame and rather than killing or at least attempting to fight him you sit down and have a nice little chat. I'm not even going to ask what the hell was going through your mind but you have put everybody in this tower including yourself in danger."

With each word her reiatsu grew more palpable causing Loth to focus his own power to combat the adverse effects Halibel's power would cause; Sun-sun for her part was just trying to keep from passing out. "You have thirty seconds to give me a reason not to have you killed," she continued, her voice laced with venom.

"If I had thought he posed any sort of threat to us I would have attacked him on the spot but I didn't. The man was waiting for me, me personally, he asked for our help in his dream of becoming God, he wants this power so that he may help everyone not just the shinigame," Loth hoped Halibel would believe this next part, "even us."

Halibel could feel a migraine coming on, "And you just thought you'd join up with this guy, do you even know his name?"

"Aizen Sosuke, currently the lieutenant of the fifth division," Loth said, "The hollow that was with him is called Aaroniero Arruruerie though from his reiatsu he didn't seem like anyone important."

"Neither of those names are familiar to me but that's not the point, let's say that this Aizen does become god, what could he possibly offer that would make us want to join him?" asked Halibel.

"Freedom, a way out of the cycle of death we're caught in."

Halibel let up on her reiatsu as she leaned back in her chair, "What are you talking about? We're not trapped or anything like that."

"Halibel," Loth leaned forward and looked her straight in the eye, "every thirty years you are forced to have your people fight and die to keep this spot. We've all seen your face after another of your people is killed; it's like when they die they take a piece of you with them. I've been here for over half a century and in that time I haven't seen a single new face; as time goes on more and more rooms are emptied and all of them are left vacant."

Halibel looked off to the side as Loth continued, "This man is giving us a way out, with his power we will be able to escape this wasteland and live in the real world away from all of this sorrow."

She took a moment to let it all sink in. After several moments she asked, "What will he have you do exactly?"

"I don't know. I'm not asking you to join him, you don't know him and he doesn't know you, I'm just telling you that I plan on working with him and if you're interested I'm sure he'd be willing to meet you," Loth said.

Sun-sun who had been keeping silent this entire time decided to make herself heard, "Do you really believe this is the right path to take?"

Loth didn't hesitate giving his answer, "I do."

"Then that's all I need to hear," she said with a small grin.

Silently thanking Sun-sun for her support Loth rose from his seat, "Alright, well that's all I had to tell you so if there are no more questions I'll just be going." Sun-sun stood and bowed to her surrogate mother before making her way to Loth's side as he opened the door to leave.

After only moving a few steps from the room Loth leaned his back against the wall, looked up at the crescent moon, and let out a relieved breath, "Whew, oh man that freaked the hell out of me."

"She was decidedly angrier than Moscow," Sun-sun leaned next to him, "I actually thought she was going to attack you."

Loth shrugged, "And that was the easy part, here's hoping Stark doesn't kill me."

Sun-sun looked over at him, "He's your friend, I'm sure his reaction won't be nearly as bad as Halibel's."

"I wouldn't be so sure." said Loth, "The guy's a former Quincy who lived, and was probably killed, when the shinigame wiped them out so I doubt he'd have such a positive reaction to the news that I'll be working for at least one of them."

"You don't suppose he will attack you?" the green haired woman asked.

Loth waved his hand back and forth as though brushing off her concerns, "Don't worry about it, I wasn't just having a nervous breakdown while we were coming up here, I did have time between my gut wrenching terror to come up with a plan. I figure tomorrow I'll play to his desire to protect Lilinette, he'll still be angry but in the end I think he'll see the logic."

Sun-sun looked over at the green eyed man, "You're leaving so soon? I thought we'd spend some time together."

"When I accepted the offer to help create a new world he told me to meet him in three days in some abandoned forest." Loth explained as the two got up and headed for the stairs "Which means I've got to get all this sorted in a rather short amount of time. But enough about that we've got the whole day to do whatever we want, so what do you want to do?"

Sun-sun took a moment to think before coming up with an idea, "You know, we haven't seen Apache or Mila Rose for quite some time."

"*Gasp* You're right, why they must be absolutely miserable without our esteemed company." Loth said with mock concern, "Well let's not allow them to suffer a moment longer." As they went in search of the other two, Loth couldn't help but worry about his upcoming meeting with Stark but he quickly put it out of his head figuring that it would all turn out alright.

_The next day_

**Wham!**

Loth crashed into the cave wall as Stark stalked forward, readying another punch.

"What the fuck were you thinking?!" Stark shouted as Loth slowly stood up again. Lilinette had stopped whatever she was doing to watch her guardian beat the crap out of her only non female friend; unable to come up with a way to stop the confrontation.

"Aw shit," Loth said once he got to his feet, "I think you broke my shoulder."

"Don't give me that crap," Stark growled, "Why in the hell would you work with the creatures who slaughtered my people and consigned Lilinette and me to this place?"

Turning to face his enraged friend Loth decided to play his ace in the hole, "Because she'll die if I don't," he pointed to Lilinette.

"Are you threatening her?" Starks voice took on a dangerous tone.

Loth shook his head, "No, that's not a threat that is a cold hard fact. You may be incredibly powerful but you are not unbeatable, Ulquiorra's been sending his little tests out to find that one tiny crack in your armor that'll let him slaughter you and her." Loth held up a hand, forestalling whatever Stark was going to say, "You may find and kill him before that happens but then what, you know he won't be that last. Eventually, as long as you stay here, someone will eventually take you down."

The fight seemed to physically drain out of Stark, "This is our home."

"No, this is a way station at best."

Stark turned to look at Lilinette, "I will not join them."

"I wasn't expecting you to," said Loth, "I just wanted you to know what I'm doing and why."

"What exactly will you be doing," asked Stark.

Loth began to make his way to the exit, "He said he'd tell me when I meet him again."

Stark shook his head before looking at Loth's retreating form, "This won't work, he's a shinigame they don't see us as anything other than vermin."

Loth just kept walking.

_Three days after the first meeting_

Tousen paced back and forth, getting more and more irritated with each passing minute. Aizen on the other hand simply stood there with that same faint smile he always wore when things were going his way.

Finally Tousen had had enough, "How much longer must we wait Aizen-sama? It's clear he isn't coming."

"Patience Kaname, this is not a man who would break his word," said Aizen.

Before Tousen could form a proper a response a Garganta opened several feet away depositing the man they had been waiting for into their midst.

"You're late," said Tousen before either of the other two could say anything.

"Am I really?" Loth looked to the sky.

Aizen stepped forward, "Only about an hour or so, it seems there's even a time difference between here and Hueco Mundo."

"Apologies my lord, I should have taken that into account," Loth said as he bowed in apology.

Aizen waved it off, "It was no trouble at all. Now I'd like to introduce you to my subordinate Kaname Tousen, fifth seat of squad nine." The dark skinned man gave a curt nod which Loth returned with a little more respect.

"I have called you here, as you know, because I need your help," said Aizen. "A transition of power of this magnitude cannot come without its share of casualties; what I need you to do is help me keep the deaths to a minimum by finding out exactly what the captain's and lieutenant's powers are."

He turned to face the Seireitei off in the distance, "The shinigame's strength is their zanpactou, in fact these days they have grown to rely almost entirely on that strength." Aizen turned back to look Loth in the eye, "If we know the nature of that strength and thereby counteract it we can bring a swift and relatively bloodless victory to the inevitable battle."

"I will not risk you life by forcing you to gather information on the Captain-Commander but the rest you should have no trouble with," he walked towards Loth until he was within easy reach of his tentacles, "Will you do this for us?"

"Of course my lord."

A/N Sorry this took so long, we are officially in uncharted territory. The dialogue between Loth and Halibel was incredibly difficult I think I rewrote it at least three times, still not happy with it. It was so hard I just skipped it with Stark.

The reason Loth uses the term "my lord" to refer to Aizen is because he actually see's the man as the messiah and to infer any familiarity with him, even saying his name with _sama_ attached to the end he'd see as insulting. He won't call anybody on it but that's how he'd see it.


	12. Dr D

A/N There's gonna be a cameo of one of the people who convinced me to start writing in this chapter, sort of a bit part but if I gave her a larger role I get the feeling it would affect the outcome of the story or I'd end up killing her. And that would just be rude.

**Dr. D**

"I've taken the liberty of erasing all of your records," said Aizen as they walked back to the Seireitei, "it will be easier to move around if there is no information on you."

"Thank you, at least now if somebody see's me they won't know who I am," Loth said.

The trio continued to walk through the forest, Aizen in the lead, Loth walking next to him, and Tousen trailing behind. The dark skinned man constantly focusing on Aizen's new ally who in turn felt himself becoming more and more annoyed by Tousen's attitude though he didn't show it as he thought it would be rude if he were to get into a fight right in front of Aizen. After a while the trees began to thin as the grass gave way to dirt.

Aizen turned to Loth, "We're coming up on a town so if you would," Loth shifted his skin to blend in with their surroundings, "thank you. These people may not know what you are but they would remember you."

As they made their way into the Rukongai Loth was surprised to see the level of poverty the citizens of Soul Society were forced to endure. Because they were so close to the Seireitei he had just assumed the people here would be living relatively comfortable lives, not starving in the streets. The most alarming part was that as they passed these destitute men and women none of them looked at the shinigame with scorn or resentment in their eyes. It was as if they accepted the fact that they were second class citizens with no hope of ever improving their lot in life.

"Even with the court of pure souls in sight these people live in such a state of abject misery," to the people on the streets it would look like Aizen was speaking to the purple haired man behind him but Loth could tell he was the target audience. Aizen's message was received loud and clear, 'if I lead these people live, if I don't they die'. Loth agreed.

As they made their way to the shinigame's home base Loth couldn't help but notice that as they got closer each district became wealthier. It was as though only by living near the shinigame could one live a life in relative comfort.

Eventually the west gate came into sight, when it did Aizen took that moment to say that he was giving Loth free reign on how to gather the necessary information as well as telling him that he could return to Hueco Mundo whenever. He then reminded Loth that although he could take as long as he wanted the longer it took the longer it would take for their dreams to be realized.

After getting through the gate they all went their separate ways but not before Tousen pulled Loth aside and rudely told him that he didn't need to waste his time with the ninth division as that was his territory. Loth mentally told the dark skinned man to piss off while outwardly he muttered his acquiescence.

Now that he was alone Loth realized that he had no idea where any of the divisions headquarters were and given his illiteracy would not be able to follow any signs even if he could find them. Rather than dwelling on this little setback Loth decided to follow the first group of shinigame he could find which, given that he was in the Seireitei, didn't take him long.

He follow a three men and one woman group from the rooftops wondering who's bright idea it was to make these maze like pathways. It was as though these people had never heard the word renovation before; that or their only architect was an idiot savant.

"_I mean look at these things_,"thought Loth as he continued shadow his four unknowing guides, "_they're only one story and barley wide enough for three people to walk side by side._"

As he made his way to wherever the group was leading him to Loth made sure to extend his senses out in every direction, taking note of every presence that exceeded that of the group he was following. Unfortunately the four shinigame in front of him were apparently not that high on the reiatsu food chain which forced the brown haired man to reevaluate his strategy for mapping out where all of the captains' would have their headquarters.

Eventually Loth was able to more or less guess where the other captains' worked with the exception of a few who's squads were most likely on the other side of the giant structure in the middle of the Seireitei. Loth figured he'd get to discover all of the shinigame's secrets eventually including what the big structure was for so there was no pressing need to divert his path at the moment. As the quartet he was following drew closer to their destination a warning bell began to go off inside of Loth's head, growing loader and more insistent with every step he took. When the hairs on the back of his neck began to stand on end he knew he was in danger yet his curiosity continued to force him onwards.

Closer and closer he came to whatever was making Loth feel this trepidation, with each step he took he silently promised himself it would be his last and with each step Loth continued to break that promise. This went on until the quartet drew close to what Loth assumed was their destination. He'd seen that symbol before, that symbol that adorned the back of his nemesis hung above the ornate building in front of him. Loth would've screamed in frustration had he been somewhere where he wouldn't be killed on sight. So he compromised with himself with a mental rant.

"_Bloody hell, it's like wherever I go that old bastard is able to ruin my day._"

Rubbing the bridge of his nose Loth turned away from Yamamoto's squad's headquarters and headed to the next area with strong reiatsu. Without his guides Loth wasn't sure which would be the fastest route to his destination other than climbing over numerous obstacles so that's what he did. The progress was slow but consistent, which was more than he could say about his path to the Captain Commander's headquarters, and before long Loth was stand outside a large complex with a square with two lines inside the corners as its symbol.

Rather than trying to find some back entrance Loth walked through the from door and quickly moved up the side wall until he was standing upside down on the ceiling, avoiding the large group of shinigame that were rushing out of the barracks towards who knew where. Once he got his bearings Loth he began to inspect the different rooms. To his surprise the majority of them housed several beds many of which were occupied by injured shinigame.

He found it interesting that the same medical practices in the real world seemed to be applicable for shinigame but then again all hollows had to do was eat enough souls until they were back in working order so who was he to nitpick. Most of the patients were either asleep or quietly talking amongst themselves but as Loth got deeper into the complex those recovering seemed to be less accommodating to their caretakers by demanding more food or throwing stuff around the rooms. At one point Loth was hit in the back of the head with a glass vase, fortunately nobody noticed the seemingly unexplainable phenomenon of something breaking in mid air.

Loth quickly exited the room before his temper got the better of him and he blew his cover by beating the crap out of everyone in the room. As he was leaving Loth almost banged heads with a woman wearing a lieutenant's badge who was almost as tall as him. She had silver hair with two braids going down the right side and a face that would've been quite pretty had it not been set in a deep scowl as she surveyed the chaos.

The men didn't quiet down even after the woman cleared her voice. She had to call in several other squad members and physically restrain the recovering while she forcibly manhandled three of the patients back into their beds on her own. Surprisingly enough Kotetsu Isane, as Loth learned from one of her squad mates, was easily able to restrain here charges with no difficulty and without causing further injury.

The green eyed man quickly exited the room, avoiding another potential collision with Isane when she turned to leave after finishing her duties. Continuing his inspection of the squad Loth found more of the same in other rooms, more often than not Isane and her squad mates would be not far behind and he would be forced to leave or risk discovery. Eventually the patient's rooms gave way to area's that housed what appeared to be the clerical section of the barracks complete with filing cabinets and harried shinigame hurriedly writing up reports or transporting something somewhere.

Room after room contained the same thing with little to no variation and since all of the shinigame he had met, aside from Isane, had reiatsu not worth mentioning Loth felt that any observations of them would be a waste of time. Loth knew there was somebody wandering around here with tremendous power he just couldn't figure out how to get to them without tearing the walls down. After he passed over a blonde man with glasses who was muttering to himself about how he should be the lieutenant, Loth was once again forced to duck in order to avoid Isane's forhead. Normally he wouldn't have thought anything about this but as he was returning to his original upside down position his eye was caught by a small plaque by the side of a single inconspicuous door.

With his illiteracy Loth didn't know exactly what was written on the plaque but that didn't matter. He'd been paying attention to the other signs by the patient's wards, achieves, and supply closets and none of them looked like this. Glancing back and forth to make sure the hall was empty Loth dropped to the ground and quickly and silently entered the room.

It was a modest space with a bookshelf taking up the majority of the left wall filled to the brim with large tomes, probably medical in nature. There was a large desk in the middle of the room with a few papers scattered on it. Two large windows sat on the back wall casting light in a way where it would only come within a foot of the two pillowed chairs on the door side of the desk and not even come close to the single wooden chair where Loth assumed the captain would sit. A comfortable looking couch sat against the right wall next to a table with a lamp on it, presumably for reading.

Figuring that it would be easier to wait for the captain in their quarters rather than hunting around for them Loth went to the far right corner and settled in for what could be a long wait.

* * *

"_It's always the same,"_ Unohana thought as she made her way through her squad's corridors, "_the old eleventh division had been a rowdy bunch but with this new captain it seems as though for every person we fix up two more take his place."_

Although some might have felt that an intervention with Captain Kenpachi Zaraki about how he ran his squad was needed Unohana had long ago abstained from squad politics. She was a healer through and through.

After the many hours of looking after the injured shinigame Unohana Retsu was looking forward to sitting down in her office and having a nice cup of tea. Checking in on patients on her way to her destination she was pleased to note that most of them were taking their recovery seriously and those that weren't were being dealt with by her subordinates leaving her with some momentary free time.

Opening the door to her room Unohana took a moment to allow her tension to fall away like a heavy cloak. Once her mind was clear she turned to the teapot and small stove she had in the corner between the door and bookshelf. Most people tended to miss it on the first trip to her room but that was how she liked it, it gave her a chance to offer some tea without it seeming forced.

As the kettle came to a boil Unohana reached into the cabinet under the stove and removed one of the cups that sat there as well as a small dish towel which allowed her to grip the metal handle of the teapot without burning her hand. Taking a seat on the couch the serene doctor let out a sigh of contentment as she took in the fragrance of her tea, these breaks though few and far between were exquisite.

Yet there was something wrong here, something in the back of Unohana's mind kept telling her that she wasn't alone and when you've lived as long as the captain of the fourth division you learn to trust your instincts.

She got up and placed her cup of tea on the edge of her desk and began to look around. Nothing was out of place, no books were missing, there were no footprints on her floor yet she couldn't shake this feeling. Around and around her room she went, searching for the slightest hint that her suspicions had some merit yet everywhere she looked she came up empty.

"_Where is it," _Unohana was getting more and more agitated by the second, though you wouldn't know it by looking at her. "_Where is this feeling coming from_?"

Over and over she would move to the couch side of her desk as though that particular area would cough up whatever answer she was looking for. There was a wrongness about that place; she could feel it within every fiber of her being.

Unohana was almost about to give up when she realized what her intuition was trying to tell her. She had been going back their time and again but only would she search with her eyes rather than all of her senses. The black haired captain stood in the middle of the area that had something off about it and let her awareness loose.

At first there was nothing other than her feeling of unease she'd felt since the beginning of this fiasco when suddenly there, there in the corner, it was faint but Unohana could feel a presence. There was no difference in the reiatsu than any other area of dead space, no discernable scent, nothing out of place. But she could hear, hear whoever was in the room with her, she could hear his breathing. It was faint, like that of a coma patient, every ten seconds she could hear an almost noiseless inhale and then exactly ten seconds later came the exhale.

Slowly Captain Unohana stepped closer to the noise, which after her first step went silent. The breathing stopped as she extended her hand towards the invisible intruder. Closer and closer she came, her hand steady and her eyes searching for any sign of movement. She was almost there; she was so close she could almost feel the trespasser's body heat. Just a little closer, almost there and-

"Captain Unohana!" a voice yelled from the other side of her door. Through years of experience the black haired woman kept herself from showing any outward signs of surprise.

Dropping her hand she moved with even paces to the door and let in a slender woman with dark wavy hair, rich tan skin, and piercing brown eyes. Currently she looked as though she'd just come from a rather difficult and annoying job if the sweat on her forehead and irritated expression was anything to go by.

"Fourth seat Deneb, what seems to be the trouble?" asked Unohana as she made room for her subordinate to enter her office.

Taking a moment to compose herself, Deneb began to explain the situation, "It's Ikkaku Captain, he refuses to stay in bed and somehow he got his hands on his zanpactou. Isane's working on damage control but he's riling some of the other patients up."

"Alright, go and help Isane. I'll be there in a moment," the captain of the fourth division said which seemed to draw the tension right out of fourth seat Deneb.

Once her subordinate had left Unohana turned and walked back to the corner but this time the sense of wrongness she had felt was gone and when she looked to her left she knew why. The window was open.

Turning back to her desk she reached for her discarded tea cup only to stop. It was empty.

* * *

"Well I've been one big bag of wank today," muttered Loth as he made his way through the Seireitei. "I suppose I should report this."

It took him a couple of hours but a few wrong turns and dead ends later found Loth on the roof of the fifth division wondering how he was going to get close to Aizen without being seen. Almost as if sensing the need for his presence, Aizen exited the back of the barracks and made his way to a seclude portion of the training grounds with Loth not far behind. Once there the brown haired lieutenant stopped and waited.

No longer camouflaged, Loth approached and bowed to the man before either of them began to speak.

"Mr. Elcho, I hope your first day here was enlightening," said Aizen.

Loth thought a moment on how he was going to break the news that he had essentially failed with the fourth division, "Well I've learned that Captain Unohana is more observant that every other shinigame I've met so far. I'm sorry my lord but today she came incredibly close to discovering me. It was only through pure luck that I was able to escape undetected. I apologize for my failure."

To the green eyed man's surprise Aizen wasn't at all angry and in fact he actually had a small smile on his face when he heard that piece of information, "Well now, that an interesting piece of information."

Not expecting such a benign response Loth couldn't keep the surprise form his face, "You're not angry?"

"Any information you are able to obtain is a tremendous help," he said, "knowing that Captain Unohana can divine the truth even from a disguise of your magnitude is certainly useful."

"Thank you my lord," Loth said as he bowed once more, "I suppose I should get back to work."

As he turned to go Aizen called after him, "Remember, you are free to do this at your own pace. If you wish to return to Hueco Mundo then return, I will not stop you."

Loth smiled at that as he went invisible, "_Well I suppose today wasn't a complete waste, I got some tea out of it._" He looked up at the late afternoon sky, "_I guess I'll map this place out for another hour before heading back to Sun-sun_."

A/N I'm gonna be incredibly pissed if I somehow finish this story before the winter war is over. We are Human isn't even close to halfway done so I probably don't need to worry but on the other hand the war's been going on for two years. Seriously.

On the bright side I actually have something planned for the next chapter unlike this one where my only idea was the word "cameo". Her part turned out being shorter than I thought it would. Oh well.


	13. Dance with the Devil

**Dance with the Devil**

It had been a pretty good couple of months for Loth, aside from Captain Unohana whom he never spied on again, nobody else showed the slightest indication of noticing him. He had fallen into the routine of investigating the shinigame for four days and returning to Hueco Mundo to be with Sun-sun or visit Stark and Lilinette for awhile. His green haired love had been very supportive of his decision to work for the chance to live in a world full of light. Apache and Mila Rose were torn about the whole thing; on the one hand Loth wasn't at the tower all the time which meant he couldn't gang up with Sun-sun and insult them, on the other hand they had grown attached to the guy and what he was doing was incredibly dangerous. Every time he went away the duo was always torn between insulting him and telling him to stay safe.

At the beginning Halibel, for her part, would ask Loth several questions after he came back, mostly about Aizen and what exactly he was having Loth do. When he continually said that Aizen was a very understanding man and that he wasn't forcing him to do anything he didn't want to she backed off on the questioning and would just wait with Sun-sun at the door to make sure he came back in one piece.

Stark continued to treat Loth the same as he always had but deep down he was harboring a great deal of distrust for his old friend. It wasn't because he thought Loth would willingly betray him but Stark knew Loth, he knew that when he believed in something Loth could become blinded to the potential damage his actions could cause.

Lilinette either didn't pick up on Starks feelings or completely ignored them, as far as she was concerned so long as Loth continued to visit her everything was right with the world.

By now Loth knew the schedules' and habits of all the captains and lieutenants excluding Yamamoto and Unohana Retsu; he'd even gone behind Tousen's back and investigated Captain Muguruma Kensei and Lieutenant Kuna Mashiro. Watching what he had begun to call the ninth division comedy routine. The two were always good for a few laughs and going behind the purple haired blind man's back made the whole experience even better.

While having an intimate understanding of the going ons' in the upper echelons of the Seireitei was a huge benefit for Aizen's plan, the fact that he had only discovered the shikai of the eighth devision's lieutenant was a bit discouraging. Yadomaru Lisa's Haguro Tonbo, though not anything to scoff at, wasn't really going to give them a nonlethal edge. Then again it was only a matter of time until he'd see the rest.

"So aside from this Tousen you haven't been having any real problems?" Halibel was once again questioning Loth about his job though this time they were in the meeting room with Sun-sun, Apache, and Mila Rose. The atmosphere was rather laid back compared to the other times they had done this. Sun-sun was sitting on a bench next to Loth while Halibel stood at her usual place in the center of the room. Apache had her feet up on the seat of a chair she had placed in front of her seat and was sitting a few spaces to the left of Sun-sun. Mila Rose was a few more seats down with her head propped up by her fist.

Loth shrugged his shoulders, "No not really, aside from those first few days I've been pretty good about keeping out of sight."

Halibel took a moment to look around the largest room in her tower, in the beginning it was standing room only but now her people had been whittled down to only filling up the first three rows. After so long she could not continue to lie to herself, if things continued progressing as they had been soon her tower would be empty. It was a decision between her pride and the lives of her family.

In the end the choice was clear.

Closing her eyes and mentally going over all of the pros and cons one last time, Halibel stood up to voice a decision that would change all of their lives.

"Loth, I would like to meet this Sosuke Aizen as soon as possible; if you could relay a message that I'd be willing to meet him at his earliest convenience that would be helpful," she kept her eyes on the brown haired man, gauging his reaction.

Loth kept the outward manifestation of his joy and excitement down to a simple smirk while Sun-sun had to have her sleeve in its usual place to keep up her air of poise and aloofness. After hearing, ad nausea, about how much potential the future held if they were to align themselves with the shinigame Sun-sun was glad that Halibel wasn't opposed to what Loth was doing. What really put a smile on her face was now she wouldn't have to keep coming to these meetings and listen to the same tired out arguments; hellishly dull didn't even begin to describe them.

"I'll talk to him about it as soon as I go back." Loth stood up to take his leave closely followed by Sun-sun with Apache and Mila Rose trailing behind. He stopped at the door before turning back to face the master of the tower, "Where exactly would you like to meet him?"

"Outside of the tower, just tell him to follow the reiatsu," Halibel leaned back in her chair, closed her eyes and waited for the others to leave before she made her way to her room to hopefully get some sleep before her brain would be bombarded by doubt.

Loth and Sun-sun waited until Apache and Mila Rose were out of sight before speaking, "Ah, finally," Loth sighed, "I thought it'd be years before we could set up this meeting."

"It did seem as though we were having the same conversation over and over again," Sun-sun said as they made their way down the hall.

Loth rubbed the back of his neck, trying to alleviate some of his tension, "Yeah, that's partly my fault. A couple of months ago I just stopped trying to come up with new reasons for this alliance," Sun-sun gave him a sidelong disapproving look. "Hey now, don't give me that look. It's not like the arguments I made weren't enough to validate my decision. 'Sides what's done is done, no point in dwelling on the past."

"So what are you going to do next?" Sun-sun asked as they continued to make their way up the tower.

"Well the way I see it we've a few options," he replied, "We could go up to either of our rooms and have some quality time together," Loth smiled while Sun-sun kept her sleeve in front of her face. "The roof's another option. We can look out at the shifting sand and bathe in the moonlight." The green haired woman gave a noncommittal shrug towards that idea. "Then there's the world of the living, it's been awhile since we've been."

Sun-sun looked over at him, "Are you sure going to the human world is a good idea; don't you think setting up this meeting takes precedence over our own desires?"

"Probably, but I think we deserve a vacation after everything we've accomplished."

The green haired woman raised her eyebrows, "'What we've done' I don't believe I've done anything of significance."

"You kept Halibel from attacking me that first time I brought this up and I'm pretty sure it's because of you she hasn't kicked me out." Loth smiled at those particular memories, "But I really want to thank you for supporting me on this, you had nothing aside from my word that this could be a revolution for all of us."

He stopped and turned to face her, "Sun-sun, the patience and encouragement you have shown these past months have truly touched me," the green haired woman looked up into Loth's eyes as he gently put his hands upon her shoulders, "you don't know how much it all means to me nor how much I love you." Leaning down he gently kissed her forehead before moving to her lips which she gladly accepted.

After enjoying the feeling of his lips against hers for several moments Sun-sun pulled away with a slight blush on her face, "I love you too." She looked up into the brown haired mans green eyes, "So, a vacation?"

"Yeah, where do you want to go?" asked Loth.

"With you, anywhere and everywhere," she said with a smile.

Loth smiled as he walked to a balcony several feet away, "All right then," turning back to Sun-sun he snapped his fingers and opened a Garganta, "next stop anywhere." Taking her hand they entered the darkness between worlds.

Stark didn't have too many things to worry about given his incredible power. In fact aside from Ulquiorra he and Lilinette lived a rather carefree existance. Even when Loth made that idiotic deal with the shinigame Stark still didn't lose any sleep. From what the green eyed man said the leader was only a lieutenant and therefore well within Stark's abilities to handle should things turn bad.

When Loth smugly told him that he was going to set up a meeting between Halibel and the shinigame he was working for Stark realized that perhaps complacency was not the best strategy when he first heard about Aizen. Though there was no evidence that Stark's concerns were legitimate, now with the potential alliance between the shinigame and Halibel it didn't matter, were he to take any action to keep safe the best outcome would be the alienation of the only vasto lordes who weren't out to kill him and Lilinette.

The worst would be Ulquiorra using this situation to somehow blindside him and murder Lilinette after he fell to the enigmatic warlord.

It hadn't been since he and his family had gone to meet with General Yamamoto all those years ago to discuss the terms of their surrender that Stark had had such a sense of trepidation towards the future.

Aikawa Love was a good captain, he was stern with his subordinates but not overbearing, was willing to call a retreat rather than allow his pride to kill his men, but above all he wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty. It was for this reason Loth followed him after Love had been assigned to take his squad and eliminate a large group of hollows that had taken up residency on the outskirts of the Rukongai.

While out there Love showed a magnificent display of his shikai's power upping Loth's already good mood. Not only would he be setting up a meeting that would ensure the safety of his beloved but he now had a captain's shikai under his belt.

After witnessing the predictable outcome of the captain's battle against the hollows Loth made his way to the fifth division barracks, easily finding the bespectacled vice captain sitting under a blossoming plum tree.

Joining him Loth began with his account of Aikawa Love's assignment while going into detail about his shikai's form and what its abilities were.

"Well now," said Aizen once Loth had finished with the day's events, "it seems this has been a very successful day for us. I can only hope that we'll have more days like this in the future."

Loth bit the insides of his cheeks in order to keep his composure in front of his master, "My Lord, there is one more piece of news that I believe you will find interesting."

Aizen adjusted his glasses, "Oh".

"Halibel has decided to meet with you to discuss whether or not she will lend her considerable power to the cause. She had requested that you meet with her within Hueco Mundo though she has left the time of the meeting up to you." Loth kept his head down as he awaited his master's response.

"You have gone above and beyond my greatest expectations Loth Elcho; I had not dared to hope for an alliance this early in our revolution." Said Aizen with a benevolent smile, "Shall I be meeting Miss Halibel at her tower?"

"No my lord, she just told me that you should follow her reiatsu."

"A wise decision, I can see that an alliance with her will prove extremely beneficial for us," Aizen's grin widened a little. "Tell her that I will be able to meet with her in two days and shall be accompanied by Aaroniero Arruruerie."

Loth was glad that Tousen would not be a part of this upcoming event, he understood that in this early stage one could not be too picky when one was choosing allies but still with Tousen's holier than thou attitude he was more of a liability than anything else. Aizen, in his wisdom, would cut the blind man loose when the time came. At least that's what the green eyed man hoped.

"At once my lord," Loth rose and made his way to the usual spot where he opened the doorway to Hueco Mundo a smile adorning his face.

Halibel was pleased that the shinigame was willing to meet with her so soon without adding any conditions. She had some concerns regarding the hollow that would be accompanying him but Loth assured her that his power was negligible and he was only there for transportation purposes.

The day arrived and found Halibel moving towards the exit of her home followed by Sun-sun, Apache, and Mila Rose. Loth was standing next to the door, his arms folded across his chest, waiting for the group to reach him.

"We'll go out to the edge of our territory. While I constantly announce my presence with reiatsu Loth I want you to pump yours out every minute," The dark skinned woman said as she strode past him.

"Actually there's gonna be a change of plans," Halibel and her three companions stopped and turned to face the green eyed man. Three of them narrowed their eyes in suspicion while the forth wore an expression of quiet curiosity, "Well there will be a change in your plan, mine's still the same I just got kinda lazy and didn't say anything," he shrugged as though to say his lapse in judgment was no big deal, "if I were to accompany you it would skew your perception of the man, I want you to join but I want you to join because you want to join."

"Get it; I don't want my bias to spill over onto you."

Halibel looked to the trio that would accompany her, gauging their power both as individuals and as a team. Deciding that they could handle themselves if this turned ugly she nodded to Loth and opened the doors. Sun-sun smiled at him as she passed through the doorway.

Having been left alone for the foreseeable future Loth went out, sat on the bottom few steps, and waited for their return. He waited and waited, never once fearing that anything could be happening to the woman he loved and her family. Staring out across the wasteland he let his imagination wander to the future, how he and Sun-sun would be free to live in a world without fear.

An hour went by, then two and still Loth patiently waited. When it was closing in on the three hour mark he spotted something moving in the distance; it came closer and closer to the point where he could recognize the quartet of women that had left hours earlier.

Rising from his seat he waited until they were within ear shot before asking how it went. Surprisingly it was Apache that spoke first, "That guy with the mask gave me the creeps with that two toned voice of his."

"Apache," Halibel admonished before turning back to Loth, "We have decided that when the time comes we will join Aizen-sama in the crusade."

Loth cocked his head to the side, "When the time comes?"

"Yes, we agreed that until he had the power to ensure the survival of my people I will only be able to offer my services within Hueco Mundo." She explained, "Though when the time comes I will fight for our dream."

"Wonderful, glad to know my living here won't become incredibly awkward," said Loth as Halibel, Apache, and Mila Rose brushed past him.

Sun-sun smiled and shook her head, "Come on," she wrapped her left arm around his right, "did you really have to say that?"

"It was either that or I told you so," the green eyed man said as they made their way inside, "and frankly I have too much class for that degree of pettiness." They continued making their way up the stairs arm in arm, "But I did tell her … a lot."


	14. Smooth criminal

**Smooth Criminal**

"Good morning lieutenant Aizen."

"Good morning."

"Morning lieutenant."

"Good morning."

Sosuke Aizen walked around the outside of his squad's barracks towards his captain's quarters, cheerfully greeting others as he passed them by. It had been a few decades since Loth had begun to work for him and already he had the majority of the captains' and lieutenants' zanpactou abilities memorized as well as their habits and mannerisms.

Having another loyal vasto lorde in under a year was another unexpected boon; Halibel was already scouting other potential hollow allies. It wouldn't be long now before he could enlist the aid of the so called king of hueco mundo.

As he came to the entrance of his captain's quarters Aizen heard what sounded like a horn of some kind accompanied by a piano; the music was so soft he couldn't quite catch the tune from out there.

"Are you all set, Captain?" the bespectacled man called through the door.

A voice answered from within, "Yep, come on in!"

"As you wish," said the lieutenant before sliding the door open.

The music could be heard much better once inside though it was no style the brown eyed man had ever heard before. At the other end of the room, standing in front of a mirror with his back turned to the door, was a long haired blond man wearing a white haori with the symbol for squad five on its back.

Hearing the door slide open Hirako Shinji turns to look at his subordinate, "What's this? Yer wearin' yer normal clothes. We're goin to a festival, I told you to get dolled up Sosuke."

"But captain, you're wearing normal clothes as well," came the easy reply.

Shinji cocked his head to the side, "I'm allowed to dress like this 'cause I'm a captain."

Aizen took a step forward, "I can't be the only one wearing non-regulation clothes; besides it's a memorial not a festival."

Shrugging his shoulders and holding his hands up in a placating manner the blond haired man sighed, "It'll be like a festival since we'll be celebratin', you know?"

"No it won't." came the immediate answer.

Shinji frowned and looked off to the side, "What a nit-picker," he muttered.

"By the way, captain, what's this music you have playing?" asked Aizen as he pointed to the record player.

Shinji smiled and looked lovingly his newest record, "Pretty sweet huh? They call it jazz it's the new big thing in the real world."

"It doesn't seem very trendy to be honest."

The captain of squad five frowned at that, "That's cause you ain't as hip and cool as me."

The lieutenant shrugged his shoulders and followed several paces behind his captain as they left the barracks. Before going to the first division meeting room they headed to the now captainless twelfth division. Shinji knocked on the large wooden doors several times and shouted at the top of his lungs asking if anybody was home.

Before long the door was thrust open and a diminutive blond haired woman came flying out with both feet heading straight for Hirako Shinji's face. As he lay on the ground Sarugaki Hiyori began to rail at the downed man, mostly calling him bald which, to an outsider, would seem like an incredibly weak insult as the captain of squad five definitely had plenty of hair. Shinji quickly jumped to his feet and began to retaliate with his own slew of insults and rude faces.

Aizen politely tried to dissuade his captain from continuing these childish antics yet his attempts at diffusing the situation were half heartedly at best. This was such a common occurrence that the only reason the brown haired lieutenant said anything at all was to keep up his reputation of being a dutiful subordinate.

Eventually the blond captain and lieutenant settled down and, along with Sosuke Aizen, made their way to the first division meeting hall. Hiyori was being oddly quiet for the majority of the journey, no doubt the fact that this meeting would be about her captain's newly vacated seat played a major role in her out of character subdued mood.

As the group neared the entrance to the meeting room they saw that there was already a small group congregating outside the door. Kyoraku Shunsui was speaking with Aikawa Love about something or other with the flamboyant captain's lieutenant chiming in every once and awhile.

Shinji and the two lieutenants joined up with the talkative trio just as Jushiro Ukitake rounded the opposite corner. The four captains chatted for awhile about the recent changes in the gotai thirteen's line up eventually getting to the subject of the former captain of squad twelve being promoted.

"A promotion?"

Every head turned to look at the man standing out of the circle, "Oi Sosuke!" Shinji admonished as though their conversation was for their ears only.

"Ah, my humblest apologies captains I did not mean to eaves drop," said Aizen, trying to alleviate some of the damage his outburst may have caused.

Shunsui had an easy grin on his face, "No need to be so formal Sosuke-kun go ahead and ask away."

"Well, as you know we subordinates are often left out of the loop." The brown eyed lieutenant began, "We were all under the impression that the twelfth division captain, Hikifune, was retiring. To find out that she's been promoted…"

"That's how it is," Shunsui said with a shrug.

Aizen looked mildly surprised, "A rank greater than captain … would that perhaps be a position among the central 46? To be honest I was unaware such a promotion even existed."

"It's got nothing to do with central 46." Shunsui tilted his hat so that his eyes were shadowed, "She's been accepted into the zero division otherwise known as the royal guard."

That information was only given a moment to sink in before the ninth division captain, Muguruma Kensei, stepped out of the captain's meeting hall and told them they were to stand in formation inside and await the newly promoted captain of squad twelve. They all took their places in front of the captain commander and waited, and waited.

Finally, after enough time had passed that even Kuckiki Ginrei had to consciously reframe from fidgeting, the smacking of sandaled feet on wood could be heard from the hall outside. The door burst open to reveal a scruffy blond haired man in a captain's haori with a surprised look on his face.

Urahara Kisuke scratched the back of his head and put a sheepish smile on his face, "Heh looks like I'm the last one to show."

The room was covered in silence for a moment or two that was broken by Hirako Shinji murmur of, "This one looks like he's a few cans sort of a six pack."

"It does appear that way," whispered Aizen.

Aside from the new captain's tardiness the promotion ceremony went on like all the others before it with the new guy being introduced to his new set of peers, who all gave him a warm if uninspired welcome, as well as his new lieutenant, who grunted out a simple hello. Once the pleasantries were finished everyone was given the go ahead to leave, most of the captains broke off into groups of threes and fours with the exception of Yoruichi who went directly to Kisuke as he watched Hiyori stomp out the door.

Aizen excused himself from the room shortly after Hiyori left, saying that due to the ceremony he had some work to catch up on. Once he was out of the first division compound he turned down the deserted back roads of the enormous complex.

Keeping the same nonchalant pace he asked, "So, what did you think?"

"I liked it," said Loth as he kept up what he called his "stealth mode", "I mean it wasn't really something you could dance to but this jazz thing is like nothing I've ever heard before. It's nice to know that human culture can make such a dramatic shift in only a few years."

"I don't see it being played in high society anytime soon," Aizen shrugged.

''Well yeah, it sounded like background music one would listen to if they were reading or sitting out watching the stars." There was a pause before Loth went on, "Mood music I guess you could call it."

They continued to walk for awhile in comfortable silence until the hollow spoke again, "I hate it when they do this."

"Oh."

"Urahara, he was the third seat in squad 2 which means I know next to nothing about him compared to the other candidates for the captain's seat. If Soi Fon didn't idolize Yoruichi she'd definitely have been made the new captain."

"Do we know what his zanpactou's power is," Aizen asked.

Though he was invisible Loth still shook his head, "No, the third seat of Yoruichi's company acts as the warden for the maggot's nest. Half the time he doesn't even have his zanpactou with him."

"Is this going to be like Love or Shunsui, and speaking of has there been any progress with him?"

"Difficult to say my lord, he's both proficient with kido and hand to hand combat though his personality is a much better indicator than Shunsui's," began the hollow, "Urahara tends to follow the same patterns so that'll give me a starting point unlike the eighth division captain. I swear, it's like the guy's bipolar; one day he acts like he doesn't have a care in the world and the next he's almost as serious and subdued as Yamamoto."

They turned a corner and headed down another deserted alley before Aizen next spoke, "What do you think of Captain Kisuke?"

"He's a good man," said Loth, "always makes sure that his people are taken care of, if one of them was ever in danger nothing would stop him from going to help them. Honor, integrity, and selflessness, yeah for a shinigame he's a pretty good guy."

Aizen smiled upon hearing that, "Excellent."

A/N For those of you wondering why Loth wasn't caught while amongst all the captains well with all the reiatsu in that single room it's like looking for a hay shaped needle in a haystack.


End file.
